Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for PRO-NOUNCE
PRO-NOUNCE, v.t. [pronouns'; Fr. prononcer; It. pronunziare; Sp. pronunciar; L. pronuncio; pro and nuncio.]
- To speak; to utter articulately. The child is not able to pronounce words composed of difficult combinations of letters. Adults rarely learn to pronounce correctly a foreign language.
- To utter formally, officially or solemnly. The court pronounced sentence of death on the criminal. Then Baruch answered them, he pronounced all these words to me with his mouth. – Jer. xxxvi. Sternly he pronounc'd / The rigid interdiction. – Milton.
- To speak or utter rhetorically; to deliver; as, to pronounce an oration.
- To speak; to utter, in almost any manner.
- To declare or affirm. He pronounced the book to be a libel; he pronounced the act to be a fraud.
Return to page 213 of the letter “P”.