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Should cardinal points be capitalised? Please give a reason why they should or should not.

Ambo100
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  • Some more discussion on this (another site) but not sure if it's necessarily correct: http://www.proofreadnow.com/blog/bid/30440/North-East-South-or-West-Capitalize-or-Not – drfrogsplat Feb 23 '15 at 03:10

1 Answers1

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North as an adjective (and other cardinal points) is never capitalized, except when part of a construct that is capitalized in itself, such as a country name (North Korea, South Africa).

As a noun, it is capitalized when used in the game of bridge (North and South play together) and, more commonly, when designating a known part of a country (Virginia joined the North) or of the world (the mysterious East, the history of music in the West).

apaderno
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F'x
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  • What about "go East" or "go east?" – Maxpm Mar 04 '11 at 00:19
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    @Maxpm: Lowercase. In the cases where you capitalize, you aren't talking just about the direction, you are talking about a specific thing that happens to include a direction in its name. So, "Virginia was part of the North" is referring to an entity called the North (during the American Civil War). But if you just said "Virginia is in the north", it just means that Virginia is located in a northerly direction with respect to you. – Kosmonaut Mar 04 '11 at 03:12
  • In what fictional world did Virginia join the North? – Arm the good guys in America Oct 31 '17 at 14:59
  • What about "This glacier is located in Switzerland's north/North"? I assume it should be "north" here as "North Switzerland" is not an existing entity. – Marius Hofert Nov 11 '21 at 03:16