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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.


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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adverb

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Northeast 2 British  
/ ˌnɔːθˈiːst /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of northeast

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


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Councilmember Imelda Padilla said her district, which includes the northeast San Fernando Valley, has been hit the hardest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

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

Opposed to their memorialist passion are people like Nili Bar Sinai, 76, a tough old lady from Be’eri, a much larger kibbutz 12 miles northeast of Nir Oz.

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

“Let’s sum this up. We know where Alice is going in general—east northeast toward the Helderbergs, and she’s going via waterfalls.”

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

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

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

No Ivy League schools or universities in the Northeast or on the West coast were included.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

A few days later the swallows and swifts felt the change and left the Northeast.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

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