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direct

[dih-rekt, dahy-] / dɪˈrɛkt, daɪ- /










Usage

What are other ways to say direct? To direct is to give information for guidance, or instructions or orders for a course of procedure: to direct someone to the station. To conduct is to precede or escort them to a place, sometimes with a degree of ceremony: to conduct a guest to his room. Guide implies continuous presence or agency in showing or indicating a course: to guide a traveler. To lead is to bring them onward in a course, guiding by contact or by going in advance; hence, figuratively, to influence or induce to some course of conduct: to lead a procession; to lead astray.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

She said there were no direct threats, but Richards outlined an account for her to give to police if they came knocking, which she wrote down in a note-taking app on her phone.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

She’s raised $10 million in direct donations, compared with Calvert’s $7 million.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Not all of the contractual counterparties to these agreements have the direct government connection of Qatar’s Qatari Diar.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026

Two direct customers accounted for 22 percent and 14 percent of Nvidia’s revenue in its 2026 fiscal year, according to the company’s annual report.

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

Bobby’s prediction was calm and direct, and reveals his belief in himself and his abilities.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

It directs cells to reorganize their mitochondria and change their muscle fiber characteristics.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

Mr. Compton also directs the production, which is staged on a two-tiered unit set depicting a barnacle-encrusted old pier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Paul Cremo, who directs the Met's commissioning program, said creating the other-worldly universe for "Bardo" -- in which tendrils engulf singers and ghosts explode -- challenged the Met's technical staff.

From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2026

Anton Corbijn directs this adaptation of Joanna Murray-Smith’s play “Switzerland.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026

Faith directs me to lie down and tells me that for our first session she’s only going to leave the needles in for ten minutes.

From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass

Aaron Sorkin’s drama first opened on Broadway in 1989, and became a popular, star-drenched film directed by Rob Reiner three years later.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

United supporters chanted Carrick's name as the former England international made his way to the tunnel after the match, but quickly directed boos at the players once Carrick had made his way off the pitch.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

A movie adaptation directed by Michael Mann, also called “Miami Vice,” came out in 2006 but was a box-office flop, The Times reported at the time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

Taylor said Counter Terrorism Policing had seen "a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state".

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026

The spirits agreed with the audience, “we were directed to ‘go forth, and let the truth be known,’” said Leah.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

By directing powerful ultraviolet lasers at helium atoms, researchers produced X-rays with substantially higher energies than the standard model predicts.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026

But in Robertson’s latest directing project, the Netflix docuseries “The One About Matthew Perry,” the Big Bad isn’t so much a who but a what.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

Anthropic, which publicly filed its IPO prospectus Monday, is directing investors to a nonstandard metric called adjusted net income.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

By directing laser energy onto smaller magnetic regions, future memory devices could potentially hold more data without increasing their physical size.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2026

As for the overseer, he made much play of his authority, directing them with a loud voice and many gestures but doing not a stroke of work himself.

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya


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