dire
French, noun/diʁ/
dire is spelled D-I-R-E (4 letters) and appears 912 times per million words in written French, the 104th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Dire is a French masculine noun meaning “saying (that which is said)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Chose dite (attribuée à une personne par un adjectif possessif ou un complément de nom)”.
What does dire mean in English?
verb
- 1
to say, to tell (to express through speech)
Dire qu'on fait des cookies, c'est bien, mais il faut ensuite les partager.
- 2
to tell (to order, to advise)
Il lui a dit de partir.
- 3
to say, to tell (to set out in writing)
Je vous ai dit dans ma dernière lettre que….
- 4
to say (often used in the sense of responding to an objection)
Qu'avez-vous à dire à cela ?
- 5
to say, to tell of (to celebrate, to sing, to narrate)
Je dirai vos exploits.
- 6
to say, to tell (to deliver, to recite)
Dire sa leçon.
- 7
to seem like, to look like
On dit de même.
- 8
to mean, to say, to state (to denote, to signify, to indicate, to mark)
Que veut dire ce retard ?
noun
- 1
masculinesaying (that which is said)
- 2
masculinebelief, opinion
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Exprimer par la parole. 2. Ordonner, conseiller. 3. Énoncer par écrit. 4. S’emploie souvent dans le sens de répondre à une objection.
noun: 1. Chose dite (attribuée à une personne par un adjectif possessif ou un complément de nom). 2. Parole.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of dire
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- disant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- dit participle past
- dis first-person indicative present
- disons first-person indicative plural
- dites indicative plural present
- disent indicative plural present
- disais first-person imperfect indicative
- disait imperfect indicative singular
- disions first-person imperfect indicative
- disiez imperfect indicative plural
- disaient imperfect indicative plural
- dîmes first-person historic indicative
- dîtes historic indicative past
- dirent historic indicative past
- dirai first-person future indicative
- diras future indicative second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce dire?
- /diʁ/
- Quebec /d͡ziʁ/
- \diʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to dire
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is dire in French?
dire appears 912 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).