directly
UK/dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/dɪˈɹek(t).li/
directly adverb: in a direct manner; in a straight line or course.
Adverb
directly (comparative more directly, superlative most directly)
- In a direct manner; in a straight line or course.
- He drove directly to the office, and didn't stop off at the petrol station.
- On arriving at the doors, and entering a long, capacious passage, our eyes became quite dazzled by the gleams of colored light which shone upon them, both directly and reflectedly.1855, William Wells Brown, Sketches of Places and People Abroad, page 255
- Synonyms:
- straightwise, undeviatingly
- In a straightforward way; without anything intervening; not by secondary but by direct means.
- I'm sick of asking you to fire him; I'll just do it directly.
- Plainly, without circumlocution or ambiguity; absolutely; in express terms.
- I'm going to tell Natalie directly that I love her.
- To put it more directly: he's not 'made redundant' but sacked.
- Synonyms:
- bluntly
- Exactly; just; at the shortest possible distance.
- It's directly across the street.
- The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being...2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
- Synonyms:
- accurately
- Straightforwardly; honestly.
- He told me directly that he'd cheated on me, and how sorry he was for it.
- Synonyms:
- frankly, truthfully
- Immediately.
- Synonyms:
- forthwith
- Soon; next; in due time; as soon as it becomes convenient.
- We'll go to the store directly, but first I need to finish sweeping.
- Synonyms:
- betimes
Conjunction
directly
- As soon as; immediately (elliptical for directly that/as/when)
- “He is, he is," Nastenka repeated. “He is here, and I know it. We made an agreement at the time, that evening, before he went away: when we said all that I have told you, and had come to an understanding, then we came out here for a walk on this embankment. It was ten o'clock; we sat on this seat....1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, White Nights, page 54
- Tenderly, reluctantly, he took his leave of her, promising that he would contact her directly he got back, perhaps in ten days or so.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 725
directly meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
directly in Tamil
- நேராக, நேரடியாக, வெளிப்படையாக, நேரெதிரில், கதிக்க, செவ்வே
directly in Marathi
- directly, without interruption
- थेट theṭ
directly in Urdu
- directly
- براہ راست barāh-i rāst
directly in Bengali
- directly, straight ahead
- সরাসরি śoraśori
More languagesFewer languages
- directly in Malayalam
- നേരിട്ട്
- directly in Kannada
- ನೇರವಾಗಿ
- directly in Punjabi
- سدھا siddhā, ਸਿੱਧਾ siddhā
- directly in Gujarati
- સીધા જ
- directly in Odia
- ସିଧାସଳଖ, ସିଧା ସଳଖ ଭାବେ
- directly in Arabic
- مُبَاشَرَةً mubāšaratan
Examples of directly in a sentence
- It is more difficult to directly compare train operations and maintenance, given how fragmented the non-infrastructure segments of the industry are today.2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 46:
- Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
- And he said that he would come to us directly he arrived, and if I did not refuse him, then we would tell grandmother about it all.1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, White Nights, page 54:
- He is to go to Calais, directly this is over, to replace Lord Berners as governor [...].2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 463:
Synonyms of directly
- straightwise
- undeviatingly
- bluntly
- accurately
- frankly
- truthfully
- forthwith
- betimes
- clearly
- downrightly
9 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of directly
| comparative | more directly |
|---|---|
| superlative | most directly |
Origin of directly
From direct + -ly.
Words formed from directly
Questions about directly
- What does directly mean?
- Directly means in a direct manner; in a straight line or course.
- What is directly in Tamil?
- Directly in Tamil is நேராக, நேரடியாக, வெளிப்படையாக. See Directly meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use directly in a sentence?
- It is more difficult to directly compare train operations and maintenance, given how fragmented the non-infrastructure segments of the industry are today.
- What part of speech is directly?
- Directly can be an adverb or a conjunction.
- How do you pronounce directly?
- Directly is pronounced /dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/ (UK).
Words near directly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: directly (page history and authors); directly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); थेट (Marathi) (page history and authors); براہ راست (Urdu) (page history and authors); সরাসরি (Bengali) (page history and authors); directly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); directly (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); سدھا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); directly (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); directly (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-directly.ogg, en-ca-directly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “directly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/directly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.