- the direction to the right of a person facing the sunset; direction of the North Pole from any other point on the earth's surface: the needle of a magnetic compass points to the magnetic north pole rather than to the geographic pole
- the point on a compass at 0° or 360°, directly opposite south
- a region or district in or toward this direction
- [oftenN-] the northern part of the earth, esp. the arctic regions
Origin of north
Middle English from OE, akin to Dutch noord, German nord, Old Norse northr from Indo-European base an unverified form ner-, beneath, below from source Classical Greek nerteros, lower- in, of, to, toward, or facing the north
- from the north: a north wind
- [N-] designating the northern part of a continent, country, etc.: North Atlantic
in or toward the north; in a northerly direction
north Idioms
north of
Informal more or greater than; above: a salary north of $40,000
Origin of north
fig. use, from the traditionally “higher” position of north on a map or globethe North
- that part of the U.S. which is bounded on the south by Md., the Ohio River, and Mo.; specif., the states opposed to the Confederacy in the Civil War
- the Northern Hemisphere, esp. as the region comprising the majority of the world's affluent, industrialized nations
