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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  

[south-west, sou-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

Etymology

Origin of southwest

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

southwest Southwest

Most of the equipment Berg uses on his 1,800-acre farm in southwest Iowa is from Deere, but he relies on Iowa-based Ag Leader Technology for his farm’s data.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

Tropical Storm Marie is hundreds of miles southwest of Los Angeles County, but forecasters say the storm’s influence will be felt into the week.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

Tropical Storm Marie, about 700 miles southwest of San Diego, was moving west away from land.

From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026

Spanish Maritime Rescue teams located the vessel some 65 nautical miles southwest of Gran Canaria's coastal town of Arguineguín on Wednesday and found 44 survivors, with five dead bodies also on board.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

Located nineteen miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, it has a fine stretch of beach on Santa Monica Bay, where Shin sometimes went for walks.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern, who leads the science team, payload operations, and science planning.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Some instead choose to spend on boats, fast cars and planes, said Max Palmer, a Southwest pilot since 2019.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

For decades, cartoon canine Wile E. Coyote has been pursuing the speeding bird throughout the American Southwest, aiming to eat him and getting blown up in the process.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Southwest is the biggest carrier of domestic passengers, but it is coming late to the lounge game.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Now a quarantine barrier in Mississippi seeks to prevent the re-entrance of the screw-worm from the Southwest, where it is firmly entrenched.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson