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Direct vs Communicate - What's the difference?

direct | communicate |

As verbs the difference between direct and communicate

is that direct is to manage, control, steer while communicate is to impart.

As an adjective direct

is straight, constant, without interruption.

As an adverb direct

is directly.

direct

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Straight, constant, without interruption.
  • Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.
  • the most direct route between two buildings
  • Straightforward; sincere.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Be even and direct with me.
  • Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.
  • * John Locke
  • He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words.
  • * Hallam
  • a direct and avowed interference with elections
  • In the line of descent; not collateral.
  • a descendant in the direct line
  • (astronomy) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; said of the motion of a celestial body.
  • Antonyms

    * indirect

    Derived terms

    * direct action * direct current * direct flight * direct initiative * direct object * direct quote

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Directly.
  • * 2009 , Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall , Fourth Estate 2010, p. 346:
  • Presumably Mary is to carry messages that she, Anne, is too delicate to convey direct .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To manage, control, steer.
  • to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army
  • To aim (something) at (something else).
  • They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.
    He directed his question to the room in general.
  • To point out or show to (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way.
  • He directed me to the left-hand road.
  • * Lubbock
  • the next points to which I will direct your attention
  • To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order.
  • She directed them to leave immediately.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'll first direct my men what they shall do.
  • (dated) To put a direction or address upon; to mark with the name and residence of the person to whom anything is sent.
  • to direct a letter

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    communicate

    English

    Verb

    (communicat)
  • To impart
  • # To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) (to) someone; to make known, to tell.
  • It is vital that I communicate this information to you.
  • # To impart or transmit (an intangible quantity, substance); to give a share of.
  • to communicate motion by means of a crank
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • Where God is worshipped, there he communicates his blessings and holy influences.
  • # To pass on (a disease) to another person, animal etc.
  • The disease was mainly communicated via rats and other vermin.
  • To share
  • # (obsolete) To share (in); to have in common, to partake of.
  • We shall now consider those functions of intelligence which man communicates with the higher beasts.
  • #* Ben Jonson
  • thousands that communicate our loss
  • # (Christianity) To receive the bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist; to take part in Holy Communion.
  • #* 1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, p. 148:
  • The ‘better sort’ might communicate on a separate day; and in some parishes even the quality of the communion wine varied with the social quality of the recipients.
  • # (Christianity) To administer the Holy Communion to (someone).
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • She [the church] may communicate him.
  • # To express or convey ideas, either through verbal or nonverbal means; to have intercourse, to exchange information.
  • Many deaf people communicate with sign language.
  • I feel I hardly know him; I just wish he'd communicate with me a little more.
  • # To be connected (with) (another room, vessel etc.) by means of an opening or channel.
  • The living room communicates with the back garden by these French windows.
  • Hyponyms

    * See also