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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

southwest.

The intercardinal compass point halfway between south and west; specifically at a bearing of 225°.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/saʊθˈwɛst//sawθˈwɛst/British, Southern, Standard/saʊˈwɛst/dialectal
  1. The intercardinal compass point halfway between south and west; specifically at a bearing of 225°.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English southwest, southewest, from Old English sūþwest and sūþanwestan, equivalent to south + west. Cognate with West Frisian súdwest, Dutch zuidwest, German Südwesten, Danish sydvest, Swedish sydväst.

adj/saʊθˈwɛst//sawθˈwɛst/British, Southern, Standard/saʊˈwɛst/dialectal
  1. Of, in or pertaining to the southwest; southwestern.

    not-comparable · usually
  2. Situated toward or in the direction of the southwest; southwestward; southwesterly.

    not-comparable · usually
    A southwest course.
  3. Coming from the southwest; southwesterly.

    not-comparable · usually
    A southwest wind.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English southwest, southewest, from Old English sūþwest and sūþanwestan, equivalent to south + west. Cognate with West Frisian súdwest, Dutch zuidwest, German Südwesten, Danish sydvest, Swedish sydväst.

adv/saʊθˈwɛst//sawθˈwɛst/British, Southern, Standard/saʊˈwɛst/dialectal
  1. Towards or in the direction of the southwest; southwestwards.

    not-comparable · usually
    We are travelling southwest at the moment.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English southwest, southewest, from Old English sūþwest and sūþanwestan, equivalent to south + west. Cognate with West Frisian súdwest, Dutch zuidwest, German Südwesten, Danish sydvest, Swedish sydväst.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.