North

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /nɔː(ɹ)θ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)θ
• US IPA: /noːɹθ/
• NY IPA: /nɔəθ/

Origin

From Middle English, from Old English norþ, cognate with various Germanic counterparts such as Dutch noord, West Frisian noard, German Nord, Danish nord, all from a Proto-Germanic *nurþą, and cognate with Greek νέρτερος (nerteros, "infernal, lower") possibly all ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *ner- ("left, below"), as north is to the left when one faces the rising sun.

Full definition of north

Noun

1. One of the four major compass points, specifically 0°, directed toward the North Pole, and conventionally upwards on a map.Minnesota is in the north of the USA.
2. The up or positive direction.Stock prices are heading north.
3. Above or higherThe price you're offering had better be north of the highest price this company has ever traded for. - Tom Aldredge in the movie Barbarians at the Gate (film)
4. (physics) The positive or north pole of a magnet, which seeks the magnetic pole near Earth's geographic North Pole (which, for its magnetic properties, is a south pole).

Derived terms

Related terms

• Norse

Antonyms

• south

Coordinate terms

• (compass point) east, south, west

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to the north; northern.He lived in north Germany.She entered through the north gate.
2. Toward the north; northward.
• 1987, Ana María Brull Vázquez, Rosa E. Casas, Cuba, page 23:The most dangerous ones are those that develop during October and November and that follow a north path affecting the western part of the island.
3. (meteorology) Of wind, from the north.The north wind was cold.
4. Pertaining to the part of a corridor used by northbound traffic.north highway 1
• 2001, Joseph R Miller, Pipe Tobacco and Wool:Traffic was doing the speed limit on North I-45 one minute and had come to a stand-still the next.
5. (colloquial) More or greater than.The wedding ended up costing north of $50,000.

Synonyms

• (of the north) boreal

Antonyms

• south

Adverb

1. Toward the north; northward.Switzerland is north of Italy.We headed north.

Antonyms

• south

Verb

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To turn or move toward the north.
• 1769, Henry Wilson, William Hume, Surveying improved (page 239)When at B you had northed 3.71...

Anagrams

• Rt Hon, Thorn, thorn