southeasterly

adj

"southeasterly" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“southeasterly” is uncommon English (frequency #73,647 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,647
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - situated in, or pointing to, the southeast

Corpus desk

Index EN-southeasterly · southeasterly · English

southeasterly · rank #73,647 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,647
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Soyinka

Nearest frequency peer: Soyinka (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “southeasterly”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “southeasterly” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for southeasterly
PropertyValue
Headwordsoutheasterly
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters13
Frequency rank#73,647
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “southeasterly” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).southeasterlyfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Soyinka” (#73,648), “spammy” (#73,649), “Sokolov” (#73,644). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “southeasterly” is #73,647. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

southeasterly is uncommon English at frequency #73,647 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for southeasterly in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From south + easterly. The correct English form is southeasterly, spelled S-O-U-T-H-E-A-S-T-E-R-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    situated in, or pointing to, the southeast
  2. 2
    coming from the southeast

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how southeasterly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The people of the southeasterly clusters—concerning whom, however, but little is known—have a bad name as cannibals; and for that reason their hospitality is seldom taxed by the mariner.

Etymology

From south + easterly.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "southeasterly"?
"southeasterly" is spelled S-O-U-T-H-E-A-S-T-E-R-L-Y.
What does "southeasterly" mean?
As an adjective, "southeasterly" means: situated in, or pointing to, the southeast
What is the origin of the word "southeasterly"?
From south + easterly. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "southeasterly", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list