Seattleites nearly always describe a location in terms of its "neighborhood." This is partly because of a potentially confusing system of street addresses (see Get Around). The breakdown into neighborhoods is informal and mutates over time, and while there are often signs on major arterial roads to let you know that you are "entering" a particular neighborhood, the placement of these signs is arbitrary. Still, knowing what neighborhood you're looking for can be a good sanity check when you're looking for an address. A Seattleite would describe 1401 45th SW as being in West Seattle, and 1401 45th NE as being in the U District (University District), which you'll note are diagonally opposite on the map. See Get Around for an explanation. The Seattle City clerk maintains an interactive map that starts with the high-level districts, but lets you click on those to get the detailed neighborhoods too.

Downtown and environs:
 • Downtown
 • Pioneer Square
 • International District
 • Belltown
 • Denny Regrade and Seattle Center. The boundaries are vague, but you will regularly hear locals use these names to explain where something is.
 • Queen Anne Hill
 • Magnolia
 • South Lake Union, or Cascade.
 • Eastlake. The boundaries are vague, but you will regularly hear locals use these names to explain where something is.

East of downtown (or I-5)
 • Capitol Hill including Broadway
 • First Hill
 • Central District

Along Lake Washington
 • Montlake
 • Madison Park
 • Madrona. Upper Madrona has a nice little shopping district.
 • Leschi. Mainly of interest for its waterfront parks.

South of downtown (or I-90)
 • Beacon Hill
 • West Seattle
 • Columbia City
 • Georgetown (including Boeing Field/King County Airport)
 • South Park

North of the Ship Canal
 • Ballard
 • Fremont
 • Wallingford
 • Greenlake
 • University District
 • Phinney Ridge
 • Laurelhurst
 • Wedgewood
 • Ravenna

North of Greenlake (or NE 85th Street)
 • Northgate.
 • Maple Leaf.
 • Lake City.
 • Greenwood

Some others that may crop up are:
 • Sodo - Originally "South of the Dome", referring to the now-demolished Kingdome. To keep some sense in the name, it is sometimes explained now as "South of Downtown".
 • Maple Leaf, Lake City, Ravenna, and Wedgewood have similarly fuzzy boundaries as you move from Northgate towards Laurelhurst.
 • The "East Side" means the region east of Lake Washington comprising the suburbs of Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond.