If you’re going on a trip, you may be wondering whether you should capitalize directions. If you happen to be going east, you may be asking whether you should capitalize the word “east”.
Is East Capitalized?
You should only capitalize “east” when you are referring to it as the proper noun, such as “in the East” or “in the Middle East”. If you are merely referring to a direction, such as “go east on I-90,” then you should keep east lowercase.
Some common examples of when you should capitalize east include:
- down East
- the Deep East
and when you should lowercase it:
- in the east of France
- go east on I-90 and then south
What about capitalizing eastern or Easterner?
The same rules apply to capitalizing eastern as capitalizing east. If you are referring to a group of proper nouns such as “the Eastern States.” However, if you’re referring to a general location, such as “the eastern winds” then eastern should be lowercase.
You should always capitalize Easterner since it refers to a group of people who are proper nouns.
To know what other words you should capitalize, try our free title capitalization tool.
