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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

directly.

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

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/daɪˈɹɛk(t).li/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈɹek(t).li/Australia/dɑeˈɹek(t).li/Australia

  1. In a direct manner; in a straight line or course.

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

  2. In 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.

  3. Plainly, 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.

  4. Exactly; just; at the shortest possible distance.

    It's directly across the street.

  5. Straightforwardly; honestly.

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

  6. Immediately.

    dated

  7. Soon; next; in due time; as soon as it becomes convenient.

    Cornwall · Midlands · Southern-US · dated · dialectal · including
    We'll go to the store directly, but first I need to finish sweeping.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English direct Middle English -ly English -ly English directly From direct + -ly.

conj/dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/daɪˈɹɛk(t).li/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈɹek(t).li/Australia/dɑeˈɹek(t).li/Australia

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

    British
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English direct Middle English -ly English -ly English directly From direct + -ly.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.