directive

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

• noun An order or instruction, especially one issued by an authority.
• adjective Serving to direct, indicate, or guide.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Having the power of directing; causing to take or occupy a certain direction.
• Pointing out the proper direction; guiding; prescribing; indicating.
• Capable of being directed, managed, or handled.
• Dealing with direction: as, directive algebra.
• noun In grammar, a syntactic case expressing direction toward an object: also called transitional.
• noun In a sea-anemone or coral polyp, a mesentery which forms one of the boundaries of the intermesenteric space at one of the poles of the principal axis.

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

• adjective Having power to direct; tending to direct, guide, or govern; showing the way.
• adjective obsolete Able to be directed; manageable.

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

• noun An instruction or guideline that indicates how to perform an action or reach a goal.
• noun An authoritative decision from an official body, which may or may not have binding force.
• noun European Union law A form of legislative act addressed to the Member States. The directive binds the Member State to reach certain objectives in their national legislation.
• noun The directive case.
• adjective that directs
• adjective serving to direct, indicate, or guide.
• adjective grammar relating to the directive case

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

• adjective showing the way by conducting or leading; imposing direction on
• noun a pronouncement encouraging or banning some activity