Do you capitalize direction?

nessam said:

As in north, south, east, and west I've seen it different ways.

"the North, the northern area of the United States, esp. the states that fought to preserve the Union in the Civil War, lying to the north of the Ohio River, and usually including Missouri and Maryland'
as dictionary.com states

If it is just
I will climb the north side of the cliff.

This would not be capitalized, correct?

Click to expand...

I'm going by memory of the Chicago Manual of Style here.

1) Directions are not capped.

Go to the corner and turn north. Bear east on Route 7, till you come to the 'T' in the road. Turn south.


2) adjectives formed from these directions are not capped.

The slopes of the western moutains. The warm southern seas. The north face of the cliff.


3) When regions use north, east, west, south, southwest, etc as part of the name of the region... those words are capped.

The Middle East. The Wild West. The Old South. The South Seas. The North Atlantic. A war between North and South.


4) When these regions are used as adjectives, they are capped.

the Eastern wisdom. good Southern cooking. a Western legend.


JoB

If you're the type who thinks there's safety in numbers, I agree with JoB. Disclaimer: I didn't look it up; I'm going by memory too.