How to spell directory

hear itdi·rec·to·ry/dɪ'rɛktəri/nounPrefixes and work

What it means: A list of names and addresses in order.

In a sentence: Mom uses a directory to find phone numbers.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as directery or diractory.

Same family: direction, directly, director, redirect, indirect. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Directory comes from the Latin root 'directus', meaning 'straight' or 'guided', plus the noun-forming ending '-ory'. It originally referred to a guidebook giving directions, and later narrowed to mean a list of names and addresses organized for easy reference.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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