Southwestern describes things that come from or relate to the southwest part of a region, especially the American Southwest. When you see a compass, southwest is the direction halfway between south and west, and southwestern means “of or from that direction.”

In the United States, the Southwestern states include Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. This region has a distinctive character shaped by its desert landscape, Native American heritage, and Spanish colonial history. Southwestern architecture features adobe buildings with flat roofs and earth-colored walls that stay cool in the desert heat. Southwestern art often includes turquoise jewelry, woven textiles with geometric patterns, and pottery designs that Native American peoples have crafted for centuries.

The term also describes the region's food: Southwestern cuisine combines Native American, Mexican, and American frontier traditions, featuring ingredients like corn, beans, chiles, and spices that thrive in the desert climate. You might encounter southwestern flavors in dishes with chipotle peppers or black beans.

You can use southwestern for any region: the southwestern corner of a state, the southwestern provinces of China, or the southwestern coast of Ireland. The word simply identifies that particular geographic slice of a larger area.