sjeverozapad

Sjeverozapad is a term used in South Slavic languages (Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian) to denote the northwest. It functions as a geographic direction, positioned between north (sjever) and west (zapad). In cartography and navigation, sjeverozapad refers to the compass bearing of approximately 315 degrees. The term is also used in meteorology to describe wind coming from the northwest (sjeverozapadni vjetar).

In geographic descriptions it is common to refer to the northwestern part of a region as the sjeverozapadni dio, though exact boundaries depend on context. The phrase can appear in discussions of regional planning, spatial organization, and local geography, and may be used in labels such as sjeverozapadna Hrvatska to denote the northwestern part of Croatia in a descriptive or administrative sense.

Etymology: The word is a compound of sjever (north) and zapad (west), reflecting a common Slavic pattern for forming directional terms. The same construction appears across Slavic languages, with minor orthographic variations.

Variant spellings and usage: In Croatian and Bosnian standard orthography, sjeverozapad is written as a single word; adjectives derived from it include sjeverozapadni. In Slovenian, the corresponding term is severozahod. Across contexts, the term is used in technical, official, and colloquial discourse to indicate the northwest part of a space or region.

See also: Cardinal direction, Northwest, Compass, Geography.