What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Direct vs Teach - What's the difference?

direct | teach |

As an adjective direct

is straight, constant, without interruption.

As an adverb direct

is directly.

As a verb direct

is to manage, control, steer.

As a proper noun teach is

(slang) nickname for a teacher.

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

    * * ----

    teach

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) techen, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Verb

  • To show (someone) the way; to guide, conduct.
  • * :
  • So thus within a whyle as they thus talked the nyghte passed / and the daye shone / and thenne syre launcelot armed hym / and took his hors / and they taught hym to the Abbaye and thyder he rode within the space of two owrys
  • (label) To pass on knowledge to.
  • (label) To pass on knowledge, especially as one's profession; to act as a teacher.
  • (label) To cause to learn or understand.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Rob Dorit
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Making Life from Scratch , passage=Deep Blue taught' us a great deal about the power of the human mind precisely because it could not reproduce the intuitive and logical leaps of Kasparov’s mind. A truly synthetic cell, built from scratch or even from preexisting components, will be a cell without ancestry, and it, too, will ' teach us a great deal about the underlying complexities of life without actually reproducing them.}}
    Synonyms
    * (sense) educate, instruct
    Antonyms
    * (sense) learn
    Derived terms
    * * teacher * teaching

    Etymology 2

    (probably clipping)

    Noun

    (es)
  • (pejorative) teacher