These words all refer to the action of showing the way to something or someone. Guide and conduct mean to accompany in order to show the way to a destination. Guide usually indicates a close or personal relationship or a joint effort between the two parties, whereas conduct stresses the fact of escorting and the unequal relationship between the two parties; conduct may even imply helplessness or coercion.

• The constable conducted the suspect to the police station; A salvage tug conducted the damaged freighter to harbour for repairs.

Guide is much more general than conduct , and may apply to any direction given one’s behaviour, manner of life, etc.

• He was always guided by his principles of honesty and fair play in his business life; Guided by the knowledge that he had only a year to live, he sold his business and went to Monte Carlo.

To direct is to indicate a course without actually guiding : to direct a stranger in town to the railway station. To lead is to guide by going ahead of. An usher leads playgoers to their seats; an officer leads his men into combat.

To navigate and to pilot are to determine and direct the course of a ship or aeroplane. To steer is to guide in a desired direction by a rudder or other means. Pilot and steer are also often used rhetorically to indicate guiding through difficulties or intricacies of any kind: to steer the ship of state through troubled waters.