Northeast

How to spell northeast

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce northeast

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does northeast mean?

1. nounThe compass direction or region lying midway between north and east.
2. adjectiveSituated in, facing, or coming from the direction between north and east.
3. adverbToward or in the direction between north and east.

Northeast in a sentence

• noun

  The storm was tracking steadily toward the northeast.

• adjective

  A cold northeast wind cut across the open field.

• adverb

  The highway runs northeast for another forty miles.

• noun

  Most of the company's factories are clustered in the northeast.

• adjective

  Their office occupies the northeast corner of the building.

• adverb

  After the junction the trail bends northeast toward the ridge.

Where does northeast come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a straightforward native compound built from two of the oldest words in the language: north and east, both inherited from Old English (north and east) and ultimately from Proto-Germanic roots shared with German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian tongues. North traces back to a root meaning something like 'to the left of the rising sun', since an observer facing the dawn has north on the left hand. East itself derives from a root meaning 'toward the dawn' or 'the place of sunrise', the same ancient root that gives us 'Easter'. Speakers of Old English already combined the cardinal points to name the intermediate directions, so northeast and its partners have been written as a single fused word for many centuries. The spelling is regular and joins the two parts without a hyphen in modern usage, which is the only mild trap, since some writers expect a space or a hyphen.

How the word is built

• north (compass point)
• east (compass point), a directional compound