Redirect

How to spell redirect

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce redirect

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does redirect mean?

1. verbTo send someone or something onto a different route, address, or course than the original one.
2. nounAn automatic instruction that forwards a web address or page to a different location.

Redirect in a sentence

• verb

  The council plans to redirect traffic around the closed bridge.

• noun

  The developer added a redirect so the old URL points to the new site.

• verb

  Please ask the post office to redirect our mail to the new flat.

• noun

  A broken redirect left visitors stranded on an error page.

Where does redirect come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the prefix re-, meaning 'again' or 'back', joined to 'direct', which descends from the Latin verb dirigere, meaning 'to set straight' or 'to guide'. Dirigere itself combines di- (a form of dis-, 'apart' or 'thoroughly') with regere, meaning 'to lead straight, to rule or guide', the same root that gives English 'regent', 'rectify', and 'correct'. The past participle directus, literally 'made straight', entered English in the late Middle Ages through both Latin and French, first as an adjective and then as a verb meaning 'to aim or guide'. Adding the productive English prefix re- to form 'redirect' is a relatively modern step, recorded from around the early 1800s, with the plain sense of guiding something onto a new course. In the twentieth century the word gained fresh life in postal and then digital contexts, where mail, traffic, and web addresses are all 'redirected'. The single spelling trap is simply remembering that re- and direct sit together with no hidden doubling, since the root keeps its lone d and lone r.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• direct (from Latin directus, 'made straight, guided')