Indirect Meaning
/ˌɪn.daɪˈɹɛkt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjNot direct
adjNot direct:, Not of obvious or immediate cause, but as a secondary result.
Sentence Examples
New indirect taxes were imposed on spirits.
Taxes consist of direct taxes and indirect ones.
The indirect effects of the war
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
She took an ____ route to avoid the traffic jam on the highway.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The increase in oil prices had an ____ effect on the cost of many different grocery items.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French indirect, from Late Latin indirectus (“not direct”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Indirect messages permit communicative contacts when, without them, the alternatives would be total inhibition, silence, and solitude on the one hand, or, on the other, communicative behavior that is direct, offensive, and hence forbidden. This is a painful choice. In actual practice, neither alternative is likely to result in the gratification of personal or sexual needs. In this dilemma, indirect communications provide a useful compromise. As an early move in the dating game, the young man might invite the young woman to dinner or to the movies."
— 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 8, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, pages 139–140:
"Did you, by indirect, and forced courſes / Subdue, and poyſon this tong Maides affections? / Or came it by requeſt, and ſuch faire queſtion / As ſoule, to ſoule affordeth?"
— c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 312, column 2:
"In the case of a piece of equipment such as a pump, the supplier's costs may be broken down into the directs of labour, material, and component costs on the one hand, and the indirects of customized engineering, sales, factory overheads, and order management costs on the other."
— 2002, Peter Watermeyer, Handbook for Process Plant Project Engineers:
"Indirect radiators are seldom installed except for rooms on the first or second floors; and in the former case the duct, D, is very short, and in the latter it is usually from 12 to 16 feet long. It should be stated in this connection that indirects of large size should be spread out as much as possible so as to give a large area against the current of air."
— 1902, William S. Monroe, “Chapter 4”, in Steam Heating and Ventilation:
"The X operations access the data fields by indirecting through the _rep pointer."
— 1997, Cay S. Horstmann, Practical Object-Oriented Development in C++ and Java, page 385:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She took an ____ route to avoid the traffic jam on the highway.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The increase in oil prices had an ____ effect on the cost of many different grocery items.