The term DIR. COURSE is a nautical term used to describe the direction of a ship's course. The crossword solutions for this term are NNW (3 letters) and DIAG (4 letters). NNW stands for North-Northwest, which is a compass direction that is halfway between North and Northwest. DIAG stands for Diagonal, which is a line that connects two non-adjacent corners of a polygon or other shape. Together, these two solutions indicate that the ship's course is heading in a diagonal direction from North-Northwest.