A human may "say" things to a computer by typing them on a terminal. "To list a directory verbosely, say "ls -l"." Tends to imply a newline-terminated command (a "sentence"). A computer may "say" things to you, even if it doesn' t have a speech synthesiser, by displaying them on a terminal in response to your commands. This usage often confuses mundanes. [Jargon File]

In addition suitable contents:
[ = ] [ ag ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ at ] [ av ] [ b ] [ bo ] [ by ] [ ch ] [ co ] [ com ] [ comma ] [ command ] [ computer ] [ con ] [ directory ] [ display ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ er ] [ es ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ ge ] [ gs ] [ h ] [ hing ] [ hr ] [ hu ] [ id ] [ il ] [ in ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ la ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ line ] [ list ] [ ls ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ man ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ mu ] [ mundane ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ newline ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ns ] [ om ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ ping ] [ pl ] [ ply ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ sa ] [ se ] [ sentence ] [ si ] [ sn ] [ speech synthesis ] [ st ] [ sy ] [ synthesis ] [ T ] [ terminal ] [ th ] [ to ] [ um ] [ us ] [ ve ]