北東（ほくとう、hokutou）
- northeast

The Japanese word 北東, read ほくとう (hokutou), means "northeast". It indicates the direction located between north and east. It’s a combination of two words, 北 (kita, north) and 東 (higashi, east). It refers to the area of the horizon that lies halfway between north and east.

⚫︎北東の風が吹いている。 Translation: The wind is blowing from the northeast. ⚫︎あの島は、日本の北東に位置しています。 Translation: That island is located to the northeast of Japan. ⚫︎北東北東に進みましょう。 Translation: Let's proceed to the northeast.

This word is used to describe a direction, specifically the northeast direction. You can use it when giving directions, describing locations, or talking about weather patterns. When you want to specify a position between north and east, then use 北東.

⚫︎The word is typically written with the kanji 北 (kita, north) and 東 (higashi, east), forming 北東. ⚫︎The reading ほくとう is written in hiragana. ⚫︎It is almost exclusively written with the kanji combination 北東.

⚫︎There isn't a single perfect synonym that captures the precision of 北東. However, phrases describing the direction would be synonymous.

⚫︎The antonym, or opposite direction, is southwest, which is 南西 (nansei).

東京は日本の北東北東部に位置しています。 ・Translation: Tokyo is located in the northeastern part of Japan. ・Explanation: This sentence uses 北東 to describe the geographical location of Tokyo relative to the rest of Japan.

今日は北東北東からの風が冷たい。 ・Translation: The wind from the northeast is cold today. ・Explanation: This sentence describes the wind direction using 北東 and adds information about the temperature.

The word 北東 is a compound word formed from two kanji: 北 (kita), meaning "north", and 東 (higashi), meaning "east". The combination of these two directional kanji directly produces the meaning "northeast".