Back Windrigtings Afrikaans Punto cardinal AN اتجاه سماوي Arabic Puntu cardinal AST Дунялалъул рахъал AV Əsas səmtlər Azerbaijani Донъя тарафтары Bashkir Desa naualu BBC Kardinal na direksyon BCL Кірункі свету Byelorussian
The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, south, east, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, S, E, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at 90 degree intervals in the clockwise direction.
The ordinal directions (also called the intercardinal directions) are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). The intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary intercardinal direction. These eight shortest points in the compass rose shown to the right are:
- West-northwest (WNW)
- North-northwest (NNW)
- North-northeast (NNE)
- East-northeast (ENE)
- East-southeast (ESE)
- South-southeast (SSE)
- South-southwest (SSW)
- West-southwest (WSW)
Points between the cardinal directions form the points of the compass. Arbitrary horizontal directions may be indicated by their azimuth angle value.