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Direct vs Dictate - What's the difference?

direct | dictate | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between direct and dictate

is that direct is to manage, control, steer while dictate is to order, command, control.

As an adjective direct

is straight, constant, without interruption.

As an adverb direct

is directly.

As a noun dictate is

an order or command.

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

    Related terms

    * direction * directly * director * adroit * dirge * dirigible * dress

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    dictate

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An order or command.
    • I must obey the dictates of my conscience.

    Verb

    (dictat)
  • To order, command, control.
  • * 2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 409,
    • Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.
  • To speak in order for someone to write down the words.
    • She is dictating a letter to a stenographer.
    The French teacher dictated a passage from Victor Hugo.

    Derived terms

    * dictation * dictator