southwest
noun · adjective · adverb
Simple meaning
The intercardinal compass point halfway between south and west.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sowthwehstSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
saʊθˈwɛst
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The compass point midway between south and west; at 225 degrees
The intercardinal compass point halfway between south and west; specifically at a bearing of 225°.
The direction corresponding to the southwestward compass point
The southwestern region of the United States generally including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, California, and sometimes Utah and Colorado
with the
Synonym of Southwestern United States.
adjective
Situated toward or in the direction of the southwest; southwestward; southwesterly.
Coming from the southwest; southwesterly.
Of, in or pertaining to the southwest; southwestern.
adverb
To, toward, or in the southwest
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The compass point midway between south and west; at 225 degrees
Used this way, southwest 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
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 southwest
- “We plan to travel to the Southwest region next summer.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
adjective
Sense: situated toward or in the direction of the southwest
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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.