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say it: dur-EKT
direct is a verb, adjective and adverb meaning "command with authority". It is pronounced /dɚˈɛkt/ — dur-EKT. It carries 24 recorded senses.
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”
give directions to; point somebody into a certain direction
“I directed them towards the town hall”
put an address on (an envelope)
plan and direct (a complex undertaking)
“he masterminded the robbery”
direct in spatial dimensions; proceeding without deviation or interruption; straight and short
“a direct route”
“a direct flight”
“a direct hit”
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”
straightforward in means or manner or behavior or language or action
“a direct question”
“a direct response”
“a direct approach”
in a straight unbroken line of descent from parent to child
“lineal ancestors”
“lineal heirs”
“a direct descendant of the king”
“direct heredity”
moving from west to east on the celestial sphere; or--for planets--around the sun in the same direction as the Earth
astronomy
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)”
mathematics
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for direct come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.