Compass Directions and Degrees Explained

A compass turns direction into a number you can read and share. Once you know how the degrees map to the named directions, any heading becomes easy to interpret.

Degrees go clockwise from north

A compass is a full circle of 360 degrees, measured clockwise starting from north:

• North = 0° (and 360°)
• East = 90°
• South = 180°
• West = 270°

These four are the cardinal directions. When Online Compass shows a heading of, say, 90°, you are facing due east.

The 8 principal directions

Halfway between each pair of cardinals sit the intercardinal (or ordinal) directions:

Direction	Abbreviation	Degrees
North	N	0°
Northeast	NE	45°
East	E	90°
Southeast	SE	135°
South	S	180°
Southwest	SW	225°
West	W	270°
Northwest	NW	315°

The full 16-point compass

For finer directions, each gap is split again into the secondary intercardinal points, giving 16 directions spaced 22.5° apart:

Direction	Degrees
N	0°
NNE	22.5°
NE	45°
ENE	67.5°
E	90°
ESE	112.5°
SE	135°
SSE	157.5°
S	180°
SSW	202.5°
SW	225°
WSW	247.5°
W	270°
WNW	292.5°
NW	315°
NNW	337.5°

Online Compass shows the nearest of these 16 points beside your exact degrees, so a heading of 340° reads as NNW.

What is a bearing?

A bearing is simply a direction expressed as an angle from 0° to 360°, measured clockwise from north. Bearings are unambiguous, “head on a bearing of 210°” leaves no room for confusion, whereas “head roughly southwest” does. To follow a bearing, rotate until your compass heading matches the number, then walk in the direction the top of your device points.

A quick way to estimate

If you only remember the four cardinals, you can still estimate any direction: north is 0°, and every 90° clockwise moves you to the next cardinal. Anything ending near 45°, 135°, 225° or 315° is a diagonal (NE, SE, SW, NW). With that, you can translate any heading on the readout into a direction you can picture instantly.