Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💨 From southwest 🧭 Facing southwest 🌬️ A southwest wind
southwesterly

southwesterly

1 3.7
Facing toward the southwest
  • adjective
  • /saʊθˈwɛstərli/
translation icon : suroeste
  • Migratory females moved in a southwesterly direction, while nonmigratory lobsters remained in the local waters for several weeks.
  • southwesterly direction
  • southwesterly course

Examples

  • After skirting a very large island, they steered a southwesterly course until they reached a long arm of land that curved northward from the mainland.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The boat sailed on a southwesterly course as the sun began to set over the horizon.

  • They trekked through the forest in a southwesterly direction, following the trail leading to the river.

  • The southwesterly wind picked up, rustling the leaves and making the trees sway.

Synonyms

southwestern
vssouthwesterly
3 3.3

Located in the southwest part of a place or facing that direction

is about being oriented toward that compass point rather than merely being located there
southwest
vssouthwesterly
1.0

Coming from the direction halfway between south and west

focuses on orientation toward that quadrant rather than origin or general location

Surface Forms

southwesterly positive

Morphology

southwesterly = southwest (transparent) = south + west + er + ly

Formed from the familiar compass word 'southwest' with the directional/adjectival endings (-er + -ly), so the meaning 'oriented toward the southwest' is directly inferable.

Etymology

Southwesterly comes from the simple parts south and west, which make southwest, and the ending -ly means 'in the direction of', so something southwesterly is placed or faces 'toward the southwest'.