Meanings
adjectivesemicardinal (not comparable)
- not comparableBeing or relating to a direction between two adjacent cardinal points, i.e. northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast.
Let the general division of the winds be as follows: Cardinal Winds, which blow from the cardinal points of heaven; Semicardinal, which blow halfway between those points
a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, “The History of the Winds”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume V, London: Longman and Co.; […], published 1858, →OCLC, page 1471 more example
Historically these colors were associated with the semicardinal directions as follows: black and northeast; yellow and southeast; red and southwest; white and northwest.
1996, Douglas R. Parks, Myths and Traditions of the Arikara Indians, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 95
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
semicardinal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semicardinal
MLA
“semicardinal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semicardinal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “semicardinal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semicardinal.
Source: semicardinal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.