What does direct mean?

What does direct mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does direct mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[v] command with authority(He directed the children to do their homework)[a] direct in spatial dimensions; proceeding without deviation or interruption; straight and short(a direct route a direct flight a direct hit)[r] without deviation(the path leads directly to the lake went direct to t

direct

direct - The Free Dictionary

[v] command with authority
(He directed the children to do their homework)

[a] direct in spatial dimensions; proceeding without deviation or interruption; straight and short
(a direct route a direct flight a direct hit)

[r] without deviation
(the path leads directly to the lake went direct to the office)

[v] intend (something) to move towards a certain goal
(He aimed his fists towards his opponent's face criticism directed at her superior direct your anger towards others, not towards yourself)

[a] having no intervening persons, agents, conditions
(in direct sunlight in direct contact with the voters direct exposure to the disease a direct link the direct cause of the accident direct vote)

[v] guide the actors in (plays and films)

[a] straightforward in means or manner or behavior or language or action
(a direct question a direct response a direct approach)

[v] be in charge of

[a] in a straight unbroken line of descent from parent to child
(lineal ancestors lineal heirs a direct descendant of the king direct heredity)

[v] take somebody somewhere
(We lead him to our chief can you take me to the main entrance? He conducted us to the palace)

[a] moving from west to east on the celestial sphere; or--for planets--around the sun in the same direction as the Earth

[v] cause to go somewhere
(The explosion sent the car flying in the air She sent her children to camp He directed all his energies into his dissertation)

[a] similar in nature or effect or relation to another quantity
(a term is in direct proportion to another term if it increases (or decreases) as the other increases (or decreases))

[v] point or cause to go (blows, weapons, or objects such as photographic equipment) towards
(Please don't aim at your little brother! He trained his gun on the burglar Don't train your camera on the women Take a swipe at one's opponent)

[a] (of a current) flowing in one direction only
(direct current)

[v] lead, as in the performance of a composition
(conduct an orchestra; Barenboim conducted the Chicago symphony for years)

[a] being an immediate result or consequence
(a direct result of the accident)

[v] give directions to; point somebody into a certain direction
(I directed them towards the town hall)

[a] in precisely the same words used by a writer or speaker
(a direct quotation repeated their dialog verbatim)

[v] specifically design a product, event, or activity for a certain public

[a] lacking compromising or mitigating elements; exact
(the direct opposite)

[v] direct the course; determine the direction of travelling

[v] put an address on (an envelope)

[v] plan and direct (a complex undertaking)
(he masterminded the robbery)

Other vocabulary

d, d and c, d region, d'oyly carte, d-day, d-layer, d. h. lawrence, d. w. griffith, d.a., d.c., d.o.a., d.p.r.k., da, da gamma, da vinci, da'wah, dab, daba, dabble, dabbled, dabbler, dabbling duck, dabchick, daboecia, daboecia cantabrica, dacca, dace, dacelo, dacelo gigas, dacha, i, i chronicles, i corinthians, i esdra, i john, i kings, i maccabees, i peter, i samuel, i thessalonians, i timothy, i-beam, i. a. richards, i. f. stone, i. m. pei, i.d., i.e., i.e.d., i.q., i.w.w., ia, iaa, iaea, iago, iamb, iambic, iambus, ian douglas smith, ian fleming, ian lancaster fleming

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.