North

How to spell north

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce north

What does north mean?

1. nounThe direction on a map that lies at the top, opposite to south, toward which a compass needle points.
2. adjectiveSituated in, facing, or coming from the north.

North in a sentence

• noun

  The compass needle swung steadily toward north.

• adjective

  The office occupies the north side of the building, so it stays cool.

• noun

  Their farmhouse sits a few miles to the north of the town.

• adjective

  A strong north wind rattled the windows all night.

Where does north come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

North comes from the Old English norð, the native Anglo-Saxon word for the direction to the left of someone facing the rising sun. It is shared across the Germanic family, with close relatives in Old Norse norðr, Dutch noord and German Nord, all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic form. Some scholars connect it to a much older Indo-European root suggested to mean 'left' or 'below', the idea being that the north lay on the left hand of a person oriented toward the east at dawn. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, the only oddity being that the 'th' represents a sound once written with the runic letters thorn and eth. Because the word is short and entirely phonetic, its modern spelling rarely causes difficulty.

How the word is built

• north (Old English norð: the northern direction); a simple root word with no prefix or suffix