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• southwest
  southwest

  noun

  the point or direction midway between south and west. SW
• Southwest
  Southwest

  noun

  the southwestern part of Britain, esp Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset

southwest

American  

[sauth-west, sau-west] / ˌsaʊθˈwɛst, ˌsaʊˈwɛst /

noun

1. the point or direction midway between south and west. SW

2. a region in this direction.

3. the Southwest, the southwest region of the United States.

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adjective

1. lying toward, situated in, or directed toward the southwest.

2. coming from the southwest, as a wind.

adverb

1. in the direction midway between south and west.

southwest ¹ British  

/ ˌsaʊˈwɛst, ˌsaʊθˈwɛst /

noun

1. the point of the compass or the direction midway between west and south, 225° clockwise from north

2. any area lying in or towards this direction

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adjective

1. (sometimes capital) of or denoting the southwestern part of a specified country, area, etc

   southwest Italy

2. situated in or towards the southwest

3. (esp of the wind) from the southwest

adverb

1. in, to, towards, or (esp of the wind) from the southwest

Southwest ² British  

/ ˌsaʊθˈwɛst /

noun

1. the southwestern part of Britain, esp Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset

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Other Word Forms

• southwestern
  adjective
• southwesternmost
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of southwest

before 900; Middle English; Old English sūthwest. See south, west

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

southwest Southwest

Sepa said areas of the southwest and Argyll, including the Solway Firth and Firth of Clyde, would experience volatile conditions, with large waves and strong winds.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

The business, founded in 1777 in Dorset in southwest England, is propped up by brewing and selling its own beer, and by renting an additional roughly 100 pubs to tenants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

The towns, around 20 miles southwest of Paris, are lower-income areas with housing projects, mosques and large immigrant and Muslim populations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

The SolarStratos plane made the landmark flight from Sion airport in southwest Switzerland on August 12 last year, taking advantage of warm air thermals to beat a 15-year-old record.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

By the statue hangs a faded banner: Bolivia Mar. When Bolivia declared its independence it had a territorial pseudopod that extended southwest from its Andean heartland through the Atacama Desert to the sea.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Berlant was a collector of both ancient Southwest pottery and Paleolithic stone objects.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

United, American, Southwest and even Frontier are all in, each trying to get it on the most planes the fastest.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

The mystery resurfaced during the 1990s, when people in Yunnan, Southwest China, reported similar hallucinations after eating bolete mushrooms.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026

Southwest Airlines LUV 0.58%increase; up pointing triangle cut its outlook again, as fuel costs continue to weigh on airlines’ margins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

At one locale in the American Southwest is a set of three upright slabs which were moved from their original position about 1,000 years ago.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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