Southwestern

How to spell southwestern

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce southwestern

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does southwestern mean?

1. adjectiveSituated in, facing, or coming from the direction halfway between south and west.

Southwestern in a sentence

• The southwestern corner of the building gets the most afternoon sun.

• Warm air drifted in from the southwestern part of the country.

Where does southwestern come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins two of the oldest direction words in English, both inherited from Old English by way of the broader Germanic family. 'South' comes from Old English suth, which is thought to derive from a root meaning 'sun side', because the sun stands in the south at midday for those living north of the equator; 'west' comes from Old English west, related to words across Germanic languages for the direction of the setting sun. The ending -ern descends from the Old English directional suffix -erne, the same element seen in 'northern' and 'eastern', which is why these compass adjectives all share that distinctive spelling rather than ending in a plain -ware or -ward form. The compound 'southwestern' simply fuses the two directions and adds the adjective ending, and it has been written as one solid word in English since the medieval period. The spelling trap is mostly in the seam: the silent 'w' beginning of 'west' tucked inside the word, plus the doubled feel of 't' and 'w' meeting where 'south' joins 'western'.

How the word is built

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