direction

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The management, supervision, or guidance of a group or operation.
• noun The art or action of directing a musical or theatrical production.
• noun An authoritative order or command.
• noun Music A word or phrase in a score indicating how a passage is to be played or sung.
• noun Instructions in how to do something or reach a destination.
• noun The course along which a person or thing is moving or must move to reach a destination.
• noun The point toward which a person or thing faces or is oriented.
• noun A course or line of development; a tendency toward a particular end or goal.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Relative position considered without regard to linear distance.
• noun The act of governing; administration; management; guidance; superintendence: as, the direction of public affairs, of domestic concerns, of a bank, of conscience; to study under the direction of a tutor.
• noun The act of directing, aiming, pointing, or applying: as, the direction of good works to a good end.
• noun The end or object toward which something is directed.
• noun An order; a prescription, either verbal or written; instruction in what manner to proceed.
• noun In equity pleading, that part of the bill containing the address to the court.
• noun In music, the act or office of a conductor or director.
• noun A superscription, as on a letter or package, directing to whom and where it is to be sent; an address.
• noun A body or board of directors; a directorate.
• noun In astrology, the difference of right or oblique ascension between the significator and promotor.
• noun In mech.: The line in which a body moves or tends to proceed, according to the force impressed upon it. Thus, if a body falls freely by gravity, its line of direction is a line perpendicular to the horizon, or one which, if produced, would pass through the earth's center.
• noun A line drawn from the center of gravity of any body perpendicular to the horizon.
• noun Synonyms Oversight, government, control.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of directing, of aiming, regulating, guiding, or ordering; guidance; management; superintendence; administration.
• noun That which is imposed by directing; a guiding or authoritative instruction; prescription; order; command.
• noun The name and residence of a person to whom any thing is sent, written upon the thing sent; superscription; address.
• noun The line or course upon which anything is moving or aimed to move, or in which anything is lying or pointing; aim; line or point of tendency; direct line or course.
• noun The body of managers of a corporation or enterprise; board of directors.
• noun (Gun.) The pointing of a piece with reference to an imaginary vertical axis; -- distinguished from elevation. The direction is given when the plane of sight passes through the object.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The action of directing; pointing (something) towards.
• noun Guidance, instruction.
• noun The work of the director in cinema or theater; the skill of directing a film, play etc.
• noun archaic An address.
• noun The path or course of a given movement, or moving body; an indication of the point toward which an object is moving.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a line leading to a place or point
• noun a message describing how something is to be done
• noun something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action
• noun the spatial relation between something and the course along which it points or moves
• noun a general course along which something has a tendency to develop
• noun a formal statement of a command or injunction to do something
• noun the concentration of attention or energy on something
• noun the act of managing something
• noun the act of setting and holding a course