From Middle English direccioun, from Old French direccion, from Latin dīrēctiō.

• (British, America) IPA: /d(a)ɪˈɹɛk.ʃən/

direction

1. A theoretical line (physically or mentally) followed from a point of origin or towards a destination. May be relative (e.g. up, left, outbound, dorsal), geographical (e.g. north), rotational (e.g. clockwise), or with respect to an object or location (e.g. toward Boston).

   Keep going in the same direction.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC ↗:

     Just before Warwick reached Liberty Point, a young woman came down Front Street from the direction of the market-house. When their paths converged, Warwick kept on down Front Street behind her, it having been already his intention to walk in this direction.

2. A general trend for future action.
3. Guidance, instruction.

   The trombonist looked to the bandleader for direction.

4. The work of the director in cinema or theater; the skill of directing a film, play etc.

   The screenplay was good, but the direction was weak.

5. (dated) The body of persons who guide or manage a matter; the directorate.
6. (archaic) A person's address.
   • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 218:

     Her aunt Leonella was still at Cordova, and she knew not her direction.

• direct

• French: direction
• German: Richtung
• Italian: direzione, senso di marcia
• Portuguese: direção
• Russian: направле́ние
• Spanish: dirección

• French: direction
• German: Führung
• Italian: direzione, regia
• Portuguese: direção
• Russian: управле́ние
• Spanish: dirección

• German: Regie
• Italian: regia, conduzione
• Portuguese: direção
• Russian: режиссу́ра

• German: Kurs
• Italian: senso di marcia, direzione di marcia
• Russian: направле́ние

• German: Hinweis, Anweisung, Anweisung, Führung
• Italian: guida, direzione, senso di marcia