The article deals with the linguistic and speech category of directness, which is dialectically connected with its opposite – the category of indirectness. Realizations of the category of directness are considered: firstly, in language vocabulary and idiomatics; secondly, in speech communication; thirdly, in a more general sense of understanding the features of the system of language and speech. Two aspects of using the concept of directness to characterize linguistic and communicative-speech phenomena are considered. On the one hand, the use of the concept of directness for this purpose is due to the semantic structure of lexemes directly / direct / directness, their direct and figurative (metaphor, metonymy) meanings, relations with opposite concepts (various depending on the meaning of “directness”). On the other hand, this is due to the character of natural human language, which also dialectically combines “directness” (of communication, communicative meanings) and “indirectness” (inaccuracy, asymmetry, etc.). In theoretical linguistics, for several centuries, these features of the nature of language have repeatedly become the object of reflection – from different points of view, in different concepts, under different names, while so far much more attention has been paid to indirectness than directness, which is shown by a review of modern linguistic literature, dedicated to the relevant features and units of linguistic and communicative speech phenomena. The article analyzes the contexts representing the semantic and pragmatic polysemy of directness in speech communication: situations that are comprehended as such in artistic dialogues (author’s speeches) (“He / she said directly” / “Say directly”); the main speech intentions of the speakers in these situations are revealed – recognition, request, consent and refusal, prediction, statement, promise.