Southeastern

How to spell southeastern

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce southeastern

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does southeastern mean?

1. adjectiveSituated in, facing toward, or coming from the part of an area that lies between south and east.

Southeastern in a sentence

• The storm tracked across the southeastern counties before reaching the coast.

• Their head office covers the entire southeastern sales territory.

Where does southeastern come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a compound built entirely from native English elements, both of which reach back to Old English. The first part, 'south', comes from the Old English 'suth', and the second, 'east', from the Old English 'east', words that early Germanic speakers used to orient themselves by the path of the sun rather than by a compass. The suffix '-ern', seen also in 'eastern', 'western', 'northern', and 'southern', is an old adjective ending used for directions and originally meant something like 'belonging to that quarter'. When the two compass words were joined and given that ending, the result named the region lying between south and east. Because the spelling simply stacks 'south' and 'east' together, the only real pitfall is remembering that both whole words survive intact, giving the slightly awkward 'theast' join in the middle.

How the word is built

• south (south)
• east (east)
• -ern (directional adjective suffix)