southeastern

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

Also spelled south-eastern

US /ˌsaʊθˈistɚn/ UK /ˌsaʊθˈiːstən/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
of, in, or toward the southeast

The drought mainly affected the southeastern part of the country.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · of, in, or toward the... southeasterly

Opposites

northwestern

Word family

Derived forms southeasterner

Related forms southeast southeasterly south east

Etymology

From southeast + -ern (as in eastern, western), a directional adjective suffix; southeast combines Old English sūþ ('south') and ēast ('east').

sūþ Old English ēast Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# southeastern

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˌsaʊθˈistɚn/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌsaʊθˈiːstən/

## Meanings
1. of, in, or toward the southeast

## Examples
- The drought mainly affected the southeastern part of the country.

## Synonyms
- southeasterly

## Antonyms
- northwestern

## Derived Forms
- southeasterner

## Related Forms
- southeast
- southeasterly
- south
- east

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sūþ
- Root: ēast

## Etymology
From southeast + -ern (as in eastern, western), a directional adjective suffix; southeast combines Old English sūþ ('south') and ēast ('east').

## AI Etymology
Southeastern comes from southeast + -ern (as in eastern, western), a directional adjective suffix; southeast combines Old English sūþ ('south') and ēast ('east'). The historical chain includes Old English sūþ and Old English ēast. The quoted older senses, "south" and "east", supply the semantic anchors for southeastern. The formation is best read as suffixal and borrowed: the word southeastern carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "of, in, or toward the southeast". English derivatives include southeasterner; related English forms include southeast, southeasterly, south, and east. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

markdown