indirection
noun
Simple meaning
A lack of direction.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnderehkshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪndɚˈɛkʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An indirect action or process.
Indirect procedure or action
“He tried to find out by indirection.”
A lack of direction; deviousness or aimlessness.
programming
Use of a variable or object through its address.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An indirect action or process.
Used this way, indirection is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use indirection
- “He tried to find out by indirection.”noun
- “He could see through the indirections of diplomats.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.