Directed setIn mathematics, a directed set (or a directed preorder or a filtered set) is a nonempty set together with a reflexive and transitive binary relation (that is, a preorder), with the additional property that every pair of elements has an upper bound. In other words, for any and in there must exist in with and A directed set's preorder is called a direction. The notion defined above is sometimes called an . A is defined analogously, meaning that every pair of elements is bounded below.