Directly or indirectly?
directly is a conjunction meaning “As soon as; immediately (elliptical for directly that/as/when)”; indirectly is an adverb meaning “In an indirect manner”. Use directly as a conjunction and indirectly as an adverb (directly is also an adverb: “In a direct manner; in a straight line or course”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) directly is about 15 times as common as indirectly.
What is the difference between directly and indirectly?
| directly | indirectly | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb, conjunction | adverb |
| Meaning | In a direct manner; in a straight line or course In a straightforward way; without anything intervening; not by secondary but by direct means BritishAs soon as; immediately (elliptical for directly that/as/when) | In an indirect manner |
| Example | He drove directly to the office, and didn't stop off at the petrol station | His alcoholism had a direct effect on his health, and indirectly caused problems for others |
| Pronunciation | /dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/ /daɪˈɹɛk(t).li/ /dɪˈɹek(t).li/ | /ˌɪn.dɪˈɹɛk(t).li/ /ˌɪn.daɪˈɹɛk(t).li/ /ˌɪn.dɪˈɹek(t).li/ |
| In writing | 79 times per million words | 5.1 times per million words |
Sources: directly and indirectly in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of directly and indirectly
directly
- 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
BritishAs soon as; immediately (elliptical for directly that/as/when)
- 3
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
- 4
Plainly, without circumlocution or ambiguity; absolutely; in express terms
I'm going to tell Natalie directly that I love her
- 5
Exactly; just; at the shortest possible distance
It's directly across the street
- 6
Straightforwardly; honestly
He told me directly that he'd cheated on me, and how sorry he was for it
- 7
datedImmediately
- 8
datedSoon; next; in due time; as soon as it becomes convenient
We'll go to the store directly, but first I need to finish sweeping
indirectly
- 1
In an indirect manner
His alcoholism had a direct effect on his health, and indirectly caused problems for others
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, directly or indirectly?
directly appears 79 times per million words; indirectly 5.1 times per million words.
directly 79 times per million wordsindirectly 5.1 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search directly vs indirectly?
“directly vs indirectly” is searched about 10 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.