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• northeast
  northeast

  noun

  a point on the compass midway between north and east. NE
• Northeast
  Northeast

  noun

  the northeastern part of England, esp Northumberland, Durham, and the Tyneside area

northeast

American  

[nawrth-eest, nawr-eest] / ˌnɔrθˈist, ˌnɔrˈist /

noun

1. a point on the compass midway between north and east. NE

2. a region in this direction.

3. the Northeast, the northeastern part of the United States.

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adverb

1. toward or in the northeast.

   sailing northeast.

adjective

1. coming from the northeast.

   a northeast wind.

2. directed toward the northeast.

   a northeast course.

northeast ¹ British  

/ ˌnɔːθˈiːst, ˌnɔːrˈiːst /

noun

1. the point of the compass or direction midway between north and east, 45° clockwise from north

2. (often capital) any area lying in or towards this direction

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adjective

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

   northeast Lincolnshire

2. situated in, proceeding towards, or facing the northeast

3. (esp of the wind) from the northeast

adverb

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

Northeast ² British  

/ ˌnɔːθˈiːst /

noun

1. the northeastern part of England, esp Northumberland, Durham, and the Tyneside area

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Other Word Forms

• northeastern
  adjective
• northeasternmost
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of northeast

before 950; Middle English, Old English; see north, east

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

northeast Northeast

Krapets, which lies on Bulgaria's northeast coast around 10 kilometres from the Romanian border, has only around 200 permanent residents.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

John, who has spent over 20 summers on Hupper Island, a refuge about 90 miles northeast of Portland with no cars and barely two dozen homes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

A truck passes this Soviet-style building in Moa, an industrial city on Cuba’s northeast coast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Angh may be Rio's first feature, but its journey places it within a widening map of Indian cinema, especially in the northeast.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Piedmont was to the northeast of their house, and it took just about twenty minutes for Moss to bike there.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

In the Northeast, diesel also comes out of the same refined-oil pool as the heating oil used to heat homes in the winter, Carpenter said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

She serves as a board member and Northeast regional director of the Journal employees’ union.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

In the Regional League Northeast, almost every game has begun with a delay as players have simply refused to play for the first minute.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Northeast of Los Angeles, the two systems come close together at Cajon Pass - a complicated geological junction where a rupture traveling along one fault may, under the right conditions, continue onto the other.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

Before the first settlers arrived in America, the big gray coyote of the woods lived and hunted all over the Northeast.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George