Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use direct in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb, verb

Direct means proceeding without deviation or interruption. Example: “They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.”

Examples of direct by meaning

adjectiveStraight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.

  • the most direct route between two buildings

adjectiveIn the line of descent; not collateral.

  • a descendant in the direct line

adjectivePertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more...

  • direct nomination; direct legislation

adverbDirectly.

  • The walls, which are fixed direct into the ground without a plinth, are made of wattle and plastered with a thin lair of mud or cowdung.1912, Central Provinces (India), Central Provinces District Gazetteers, page 96
  • Presumably Mary is to carry messages that she, Anne, is too delicate to convey direct.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 346

verbTo manage, control, steer.

  • to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army

verbTo aim (something) at (something else).

  • They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.
  • He directed his question to the room in general.

verbTo point out to or show (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way; to refer.

  • He directed me to the left-hand road.

verbTo point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order.

  • She directed them to leave immediately.

More sentences with direct

  • Although not a direct cause, the border skirmish was certainly a collateral incitement for the war.From the entry collateral
  • A fabricator is used to direct a sharp blow to the surface of the stone.From the entry blow
  • Consanguinity in direct line is a challenge for a judge when he or she is sitting cases.From the entry challenge
  • The reinsurance company accepted a 25% cession from the direct insurer.From the entry cession
  • If you clean a window in direct sunlight, it will streak.From the entry streak
  • You will streak a window by cleaning it in direct sunlight.From the entry streak
  • His alcoholism had a direct effect on his health, and indirectly caused problems for others.From the entry indirectly
  • Britain resumed direct control of North Ireland after just nine weeks of self-rule.From the entry self-rule
  • She was a wonderful cultivator of potential in her direct reports.From the entry cultivator
  • The judgment will be set aside based on the client's perjurous answer to the judge's direct questions.From the entry perjurous
  • Jobseekers are entitled to personalised jobsearch planning and job-matching, with direct access to vacancies.From the entry jobsearch
  • Please direct all suggestions to the OPI of the event, Mr. Smith.From the entry OPI
  • Glycocyamine is a direct precursor of creatine and is used as a supplement.From the entry glycocyamine
  • Direct limits in the algebraic sense are models of category-theoretic colimits.From the entry direct limit
  • He went VFR direct to the general, and without having gotten his facts straight.From the entry VFR direct
  • He said, "I want stronger action to be taken." That's a direct quote.From the entry direct quote
  • The ship took a direct hit and was destroyed.From the entry take
  • The accusative case most commonly indicates a direct object.From the entry case
  • Please direct your attention to the following words.From the entry attention
  • Please direct this lady to the soft furnishings department.From the entry lady
  • Sergeant, direct your gunfire toward that copse of trees.From the entry gunfire
  • The categorical product generalises the Cartesian product of sets, product of topological spaces and direct product of groups.From the entry categorical product
  • The grammatical cases nominative and accusative are used for subject resp. direct object in many languages, including Latin.From the entry grammatical case
  • The homopolar generator produces direct current through electromagnetic induction.From the entry homopolar
  • You can pay by direct deposit, check, or cash.From the entry direct deposit
  • It has long been known that, if range restriction is indirect rather than direct, this formula will undercorrect.From the entry undercorrect
  • The readers were expecting things to be a little more direct, and so they're probably feeling a bit flounderish.From the entry flounderish
  • A direct limit has “canonical functions” which map each element of the disjoint union to its equivalence class.From the entry direct limit
  • The politician sidetracked the reporter with a story about duck hunting instead of a direct response to the question that was asked.From the entry sidetrack
  • If A and B are sets, their direct product is the set of ordered pairs (a,b) with a in A and b in B.From the entry direct product

Meaning of direct

  1. adjective Proceeding without deviation or interruption.
  2. adjective Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.
  3. adjective Straightforward; sincere.

Full definition of direct

Questions about direct in a sentence

How do you use direct in a sentence?
Direct is used as an adjective, adverb and verb. For example: “They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.”
What is a short sentence with direct?
“direct nomination; direct legislation”
What does direct mean?
Direct means proceeding without deviation or interruption.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: direct (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use direct in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/direct. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.