Understanding the driving mechanisms behind metal-insulator transitions (MITs) is a critical step toward controlling material’s properties. Since the proposal of charge order–induced MIT in magnetite Fe₃O₄in 1939 by Verwey, the nature of the charge order and its role in the transition have remained elusive. Recently, a trimeron order was found in the low-temperature structure of Fe₃O₄; however, the expected transition entropy change in forming trimeron is greater than the observed value, which arises a reexamination of the ground state in the high-temperature phase. Here, we use electron diffraction to unveil that a nematic charge order on particular Fe sites emerges in the high-temperature structure of bulk Fe₃O₄and that, upon cooling, a competitive intertwining of charge and lattice orders arouses the Verwey transition. Our findings discover an unconventional type of electronic nematicity in correlated materials and offer innovative insights into the transition mechanism in Fe₃O₄via the electron-phonon coupling.