Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use directly in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb, conjunction

Directly means in a direct manner; in a straight line or course. Example: “He drove directly to the office, and didn't stop off at the petrol station.”

Examples of directly by meaning

adverbIn a direct manner; in a straight line or course.

  • He drove directly to the office, and didn't stop off at the petrol station.
  • 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

adverbIn 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.

adverbPlainly, 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.

adverbExactly; just; at the shortest possible distance.

  • It's directly across the street.
  • 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

adverbStraightforwardly; honestly.

  • He told me directly that he'd cheated on me, and how sorry he was for it.

adverbSoon; next; in due time; as soon as it becomes convenient.

  • We'll go to the store directly, but first I need to finish sweeping.

conjunctionAs soon as; immediately (elliptical for directly that/as/when).

  • 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
  • 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

More sentences with directly

  • Do you think it is a bad idea to confront him directly?From the entry bad
  • Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share.From the entry share
  • In insert mode, characters typed are directly inserted into the buffer.From the entry mode
  • The farmer sold his produce directly to stores without a middleman.From the entry middleman
  • The simple question of which numbers are divisible by others leads directly into many deep number-theoretical questions.From the entry number-theoretical
  • Before I tackle the question directly, I must briefly review historical approaches to the problem.From the entry review
  • I was eldered for directly responding to someone else's message in meeting for worship.From the entry elder
  • At the end of Primary 6 students can promote directly to the secondary section of SIS.From the entry promote
  • He was completely underqualified for the job, so I put his resume directly into the circular file.From the entry circular file
  • Trying blowing up it at an angle instead of directly across it.From the entry blow up
  • You can't hit it directly, but maybe if you give it some english.From the entry english
  • The profilometry of the tubing was conducted directly following the eddy current exam.From the entry profilometry
  • The comedian stepped out of character to mug directly to the audience.From the entry out of character
  • An injection which is administered directly into a cancerous area is an intralesional injection.From the entry intralesional
  • The praetorian gate was directly in front of the general's tent, and nearest to the enemy.From the entry praetorian
  • He got caught double-dipping by billing the government directly as well as the primary contractor.From the entry double-dip
  • She went over his head and took her complaint directly to the president of the company.From the entry go over someone's head
  • The actual at-risk population was limited to those directly exposed and could be quarantined or monitored.From the entry at-risk
  • The island was directly abeam of us.From the entry abeam
  • In the play’s epilogue, the actor addressed the audience directly.From the entry epilogue
  • Maybe you could, I don't know, directly talk to her about it instead of complaining to me for once?From the entry I don't know
  • He remapped the variable in the code to hold the value directly, instead of a pointer to the value.From the entry remap
  • Cameraless animation involves drawing each frame directly onto film.From the entry cameraless
  • I get my marching orders directly from the president.From the entry marching orders
  • The plastron of a diving beetle is not directly a source of oxygen, but acts as a gill, acquiring oxygen from the surrounding water.From the entry plastron
  • More precisely, a spherometer directly measures a sagitta (distance between a point and a chord), allowing the radius of curvature to be calculated.From the entry spherometer
  • Most feudal obligations were owed to the chief lord of the estate, but others were owed only and directly to the king of the realm.From the entry chief lord
  • "Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.From the entry sound-symbolic
  • An Empire-style dress has a high waistline – directly under the bust – from which the dress falls all the way to a hem as low as the floor.From the entry fall

Meaning of directly

  1. adverb In a direct manner; in a straight line or course.
  2. adverb In a straightforward way; without anything intervening; not by secondary but by direct means.
  3. adverb Plainly, without circumlocution or ambiguity; absolutely; in express terms.

Full definition of directly

Questions about directly in a sentence

How do you use directly in a sentence?
Directly is used as an adverb and conjunction. For example: “He drove directly to the office, and didn't stop off at the petrol station.”
What is a short sentence with directly?
“It's directly across the street.”
What does directly mean?
Directly means in a direct manner; in a straight line or course.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: directly (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 directly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/directly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.