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southerly

adjective · adverb · noun

Simple meaning

Towards the direction where the sun is at midday.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhtherlee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsʌðɚli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Facing the south; directed towards the south.

  2. Located towards or in the south.

  3. Coming from the south.

adverb

  1. In a southward direction or position; (towards the) south.

  2. From the south

noun

  1. A wind blowing from the south.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Facing the south; directed towards the south.

Used this way, southerly is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use southerly

  • “The ship turned southerly.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Facing / located

southerly directionsoutherly point

Wind

southerly wind

Other combinations

southerly coursethence southerlysoutherly sidesoutherly routesoutherly part

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: facing the south

southsouthern

adverb

Sense: in a southward direction or position

south

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.