Northwestern

How to spell northwestern

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce northwestern

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does northwestern mean?

1. adjectiveSituated in, directed toward, or coming from the direction between north and west.

Northwestern in a sentence

• The northwestern corner of the building gets the least sunlight.

• Cold air swept in from the northwestern region overnight.

Where does northwestern come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a thoroughly native English compound, built from three Old English elements that have changed little over a thousand years. The base words 'north' and 'west' both descend from Old English (norð and west respectively), themselves rooted in common Germanic terms for those compass directions; west ultimately traces back to a root meaning 'to go down', a nod to the setting sun. The suffix '-ern' comes from the Old English '-erne', a directional ending also seen in 'eastern', 'western', and 'southern', which marked the quarter of the sky or land toward which something lay. Combining the two directions gives the intermediate compass point between north and west, and adding '-ern' turns it into an adjective describing things lying in or coming from that quarter. The spelling is wholly transparent once you see it as north plus west plus ern, so the only real trap is remembering it is a single solid word with no hyphen and that the 'w' from 'west' sits quietly in the middle.

How the word is built

• north (compass direction)
• west (compass direction)
• -ern (directional adjective suffix, from Old English -erne)