Southwest

//saʊθˈwɛst// adj, adv, name, noun

adj, adv, name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The intercardinal compass point halfway between south and west; specifically at a bearing of 225°.

    "So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams."

  2. 2
    a location in the southwestern part of a country, region, or city wordnet
  3. 3
    the compass point midway between south and west; at 225 degrees wordnet
  4. 4
    the direction corresponding to the southwestward compass point wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, in or pertaining to the southwest; southwestern. not-comparable, usually
  2. 2
    Situated toward or in the direction of the southwest; southwestward; southwesterly. not-comparable, usually

    "A southwest course."

  3. 3
    Coming from the southwest; southwesterly. not-comparable, usually

    "A southwest wind."

Adjective
  1. 1
    situated in or oriented toward the southwest wordnet
  2. 2
    coming from the southwest wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Towards or in the direction of the southwest; southwestwards. not-comparable, usually

    "We are travelling southwest at the moment."

Adverb
  1. 1
    to, toward, or in the southwest wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A borough and region of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  2. 2
    Synonym of Southwestern United States.
  3. 3
    A locality in the Central Highlands council area, the Derwent Valley council area, Huon Valley council area and the West Coast council area, central Tasmania, Australia.

Synonyms

All synonyms
northeastsouthwesterlyamerican southwestantarcticarcticaustral

Example

More examples

"The Naxi language is spoken in Southwest China."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From southwest, equivalent to south + west. * (Montreal): Calque of French Sud-Ouest. * (United States of America): Ellipsis of American Southwest or Desert Southwest.

Related phrases

Southwest MiddlesexSouthwest Middlesexsouth-southwestsouth-southwesterlysouth-southwesternsouth-southwestwardssouthwest by southsouthwest by westwest-southwestwest-southwesterlywest-southwesternwest-southwestwards

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.