directory
adjEtymology From Middle English directorye, from Latin dīrēctōrius. By surface analysis, direct + -ory.
1
Containing directions; instructing; directorial.
directory
nounUK /dɪˈɹɛktəɹi/
Etymology From Middle English directorie, dyrectorye, from Medieval Latin dīrēctōrium. By surface analysis, direct + -ory. Doublet of directorium. The political sense is a semantic loan from French directoire.
1
A list of names, addresses etc, of specific classes of people or organizations, often in alphabetical order or in some classification.
- look up an address in the directory
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A structured listing of the names and characteristics of the files on a storage device.
3
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A virtual container in a computer's file system, in which files and other directories may be stored. The files and subdirectories in a directory are usually related.
4
Government, Politics A form of government with a collegial executive whose members jointly exercise power; the executive of such a government.
- […] at the Ufa State Conference it was it was the union's conception of a directory (rather than a dictatorship) to rule anti-Bolshevik Russia that won the day.2015, Jonathan D. Smele, Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926, →ISBN, Union for the Return to the Motherland, page 1243:
- Derived terms
- directory assistance, directory climbing, directory enquiries, directoryless, directory service, directory traversal, ex-directory, metadirectory, non-directory, superdirectory