In engineering and physics, the property of a device (such as an antenna or microphone) to respond more strongly to signals from one direction than from others.
From 'directive' (Latin directivus) + '-ity' (suffix forming abstract nouns). The term is technical, originating in 20th-century electrical engineering and acoustics literature.
Directivity is why your phone's microphone doesn't pick up all sounds equally—it's been engineered to favor your mouth's direction while rejecting background noise, a physics trick that makes human conversation possible in noisy rooms.
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