Westward

//ˈwɛst.wɚd// adj, adv, name, noun

adj, adv, name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The western region or countries; the west. uncountable

    "I name this to explain what I said before, of Ships being embay’d and lost here: this is when, coming from the Westward, they omit to keep a good Offing, or are taken short by contrary Winds […]"

  2. 2
    the cardinal compass point that is at 270 degrees wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Lying toward the west.

    "[…] yond same star that’s westward from the pole"

  2. 2
    Moving or oriented toward the west.

    "1783, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London: W. Strahan & T. Cadell, Volume 3, Chapter 17, p. 8, Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the Propontis, may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows."

Adjective
  1. 1
    moving toward the west wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Toward the west.

    "ride westward."

Adverb
  1. 1
    toward the west wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A civil parish and small village in Allerdale borough, Cumbria, England (OS grid ref NY2744).

Example

More examples

"Europe is not really a continent; it juts westward out of Eurasia, the continent, as India juts southward out thereof."

Etymology

From Middle English westward, from Old English westweard.

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