westerly

1. 1.

   of wind; from the west

   Synonymswestern

   Similarwest
2. 2.

   moving toward the west

   “westbound pioneers”

   Synonymswestboundwestward

   Similarwest

1. 1.

   toward the west

   “we began to steer away westerly”
2. 2.

   from the west

   “the wind blew westerly”

   Antonymseasterly

1. 1.

   the winds from the west that occur in the temperate zones of the Earth

   Synonymsprevailing westerly

   Broaderwest wind

Other forms of westerly

plural

westerlies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about westerly

What does westerly mean?

westerly means "of wind; from the west". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in westerly?

westerly has 3 syllables: wes-ter-ly. The stress falls on "wes". In IPA it is /ˈwɛstɚli/.

What is another word for westerly?

Close synonyms include western, westbound, westward, prevailing westerly. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of westerly?

The recorded antonyms are easterly.

Is westerly a common word?

westerly is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.