Word.ws English Dictionary

south

/ˈsaʊ̯θ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈsawθ/

south noun: the direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the southern side of the invariable plane.

south: the direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or...
Image: El Grafo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

south (countable and uncountable, plural souths)

  1. The direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the southern side of the invariable plane.
    • Germany is south of Denmark.
  2. The southern region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
    • Just before independence (in 1955) the military garrison in the south rebelled and that was the beginning of a civil war between the north and the south ...1996, Andrew W. Conrad, Alma Rubal-Lopez, Post-Imperial English: Status Change in Former British and American Colonies, 1940-1990, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 343
    • What was said [prior to 2003] is that the south rebelled. Even then; rebelled? What rebelled? Who was supporting Saddam other than the people of the south?2014, Fanar Haddad, Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 131
  3. In a church: the direction to the right-hand side of a person facing the altar.
    • If candidates stand on the liturgical south facing the presider and liturgical assistants on the liturgical north, it will present better visual lines for the congregation than if they stand facing east and west with their backs toward the congregation.1998, Leonel L. Mitchell, Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 49
    • It is to be situated in the chancel on the right (i.e., liturgical south) side of the church.2002, John L. Hooker, In the Shadows of Holy Week: The Office of Tenebrae, Church Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  4. The negative or south pole of a magnet.

Adjective

south (not comparable)

  1. Toward the south; southward.
  2. from the south.
  3. Of or pertaining to the south; southern.
  4. Pertaining to the part of a corridor used by southbound traffic.
    • south highway 1
  5. Designating, or situated in, the liturgical south.
    • Throughout the book I refer directionally to the altar and chancel of St. Andrew's as situated at ecclesiastical east (to avoid overcomplicating matters), not geographical or magnetic southeast. Thus, […] The north side faces the river (beyond the subdivision behind the church), and the south side...2014, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706-2013, WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 365

Adverb

south (comparative further south or farther south, superlative furthest south or farthest south)

  1. Toward the south; southward.
    • When folks from Nags Head want to get away from it all, they head south—and so did I, across the bridge over Oregon Inlet to reach Hatteras Island.1987 October, Charles E. Cobb, Jr., “North Carolina's Outer Banks”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 496
  2. Downward.
  3. (figuratively) In an adverse direction or trend.
    • His fortunes have been going south ever since he was tricked into investing in that ostrich farm.
    Synonyms:
    sideways
  4. Of wind, from the south.

Verb

south (third-person singular simple present souths, present participle southing, simple past and past participle southed)

  1. To turn or move toward the south; to veer toward the south.
  2. To come to the meridian; to cross the north and south line.
    • The moon souths at nine.

Proper noun capitalized: South

the South (countable and uncountable, plural Souths)

  1. (US) The Southern United States.
    • Holonyms: United States, United States of America, U.S., US, USA < North America < Earth < Solar System < Orion Arm < Milky Way < Local Group < Virgo Supercluster < Laniakea < Universe
    • Meronyms: Upper South, Deep South, Old South, Southeast
  2. Southern England.
    • Holonyms: England < Great Britain, Britain < United Kingdom, UK < Earth, World < Solar System < Orion Arm < Milky Way < Local Group < Virgo Supercluster < Laniakea < Universe
  3. (India) The southern states of India.
    Synonyms:
    South India
  4. The Global South.
  5. (UK) Antarctica.
    • Over three weeks in 2019, Kaefer spent time at three English-speaking Antarctic stations observing and gathering data from workers based on what the US station refers to as “The Ice”, or the British call the “South”.2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian
  6. A surname.
  7. (abbreviation, ellipsis, informal, Durham University) Ellipsis of South College, Durham.

south meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

south in Hindi

compass point
दक्षिण dakṣiṇ, दक्खिन dakkhin, जनूब janūb, दक्खण dakkhaṇ, दखन dakhan, क़िबला qiblā

south in Tamil

compass point
தெற்கு teṟku

south in Marathi

compass point
दक्षिण dakṣiṇ

south in Urdu

compass point
جُنُوب junūb, جَنُوب janūb, دَکْشِن dakśin, دَکّھِن dakkhin
More languagesFewer languages
south in Bengali
দক্ষিণ dokkhin
south in Telugu
దక్షిణం dakṣiṇaṁ
south in Malayalam
തെക്ക് tekkŭ
south in Kannada
ದಕ್ಷಿಣ dakṣiṇa
south in Punjabi
ਦੱਖਣ dakkhaṇ
south in Gujarati
દક્ષિણ dakṣiṇ
south in Odia
ଦକ୍ଷିଣ dakṣiṇa
south in Sanskrit
दक्षिण dakṣiṇa
south in Sinhala
දකණ dakaṇa
south in Assamese
দক্ষিণ dokhin
south in Nepali
दक्षिण dakṣiṇ
south in Pashto
سوېل swel, جنوب janúb, پښوخوا px̌óxbā
south in Tagalog
timog
south in Arabic
جَنُوب janūb, جنوب gunūb, جَنوب janūb
south in Malay
selatan, daksina, janubi
south in Indonesian
selatan
south in Persian
جَنُوب janūb, نِیمْروز nīmrōz, جُنوب jonub, نیمْروز nimruz
south in Thai
ทิศใต้ tít dtâi, ใต้ dtâai, ทักษิณ ták-sǐn
south in Vietnamese
phía nam, hướng nam, nam
south in Myanmar
တောင် taung, ဒက္ခိဏ dakhki.na.
Dhivehi
ދެކުނު

Examples of south in a sentence

  • When Nimeiri ended that autonomy in 1983, the south took up arms.2019, Allan Thompson, Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, →ISBN, page 322:
  • It was moved from its original location in 1507 hardly a decade after it was completed, to the bottom of the liturgical south aisle along with the free-standing chapel of the relic of the lance.2009, Carol Mary Richardson, Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century, BRILL, →ISBN, page 389:
  • Andrew's as situated at ecclesiastical east (to avoid overcomplicating matters), not geographical or magnetic southeast.2014 April 11, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706–2013, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow...
  • Thus, […] The north side faces the river (beyond the subdivision behind the church), and the south side, Ashley River Road.2014, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706-2013, WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 365:

All 40 example sentences with south

Synonyms of south

Antonyms

  • antonym(s) of

Forms of south

Noun
pluralsouths
Adverb
comparativefurther south
comparativefarther south
superlativefurthest south
superlativefarthest south
Verb
third-person singular presentsouths
present participlesouthing
past participlesouthed
pastsouthed
Proper noun
pluralSouths

Plural of south: souths

Origin of south

From Middle English south, from Old English sūþ, from Proto-West Germanic *sunþr (“southern”), from Proto-Germanic *sunþrą (“south”), from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Cognates Cognate with Scots sooth (“south”), Yola zouth (“south”), North Frisian sööd, Süđ, süüd (“south”), Saterland Frisian Sude, Suud (“south”), West Frisian súd (“south”), Dutch zuid (“south”), German Süd (“south”), Danish syd (“south”), Faroese and Icelandic suður (“south”), Norwegian Bokmål syd, sør (“south”), Norwegian Nynorsk sør (“south”), Swedish syd, söder (“south”); also with Irish súil (“eye”), Cornish howl (“sun”), Manx sooill (“eye”), Scottish Gaelic sùil (“eye”), Welsh haul (“sun”), Latin sōl (“sun”), Ancient Greek ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun; east; day”), Czech slunce (“sun”), Polish słońce (“sun”), Russian солнце (solnce, “sun”), Serbo-Croatian сунце, sunce (“sun”), Slovene sonce (“sun”), Latgalian saule (“sun”), Latvian saũle (“sun”), Lithuanian sáulė (“sun”), Albanian diell (“sun”), Avestan 𐬵𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭𐬆 (huuar^ə, “sun”), Persian خور (xwar, “sun”), Ossetian хор (xor), хур (xur, “sun”), Sanskrit सूर्य (sūrya, “sun”), Tocharian A swāñce (“beam, ray”), Tocharian B swāñco (“beam, ray”).

By proprialization from south.

Words formed from south

Phrases with south

176 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with south

Questions about south

What does south mean?
South means the direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the southern side of the invariable plane.
What is south in Hindi?
South in Hindi is दक्षिण (dakṣiṇ), दक्खिन (dakkhin), जनूब (janūb). See South meaning in Hindi.
How do you use south in a sentence?
When Nimeiri ended that autonomy in 1983, the south took up arms.
What part of speech is south?
South can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
How do you pronounce south?
South is pronounced /ˈsaʊ̯θ/ (UK).
What is the plural of south?
The plural of south is souths.

Words near south in the dictionary

  1. souter
  2. souterly
  3. souterrain
  4. souterrains
  5. souters
  6. south
  7. South 24 Parganas
  8. South Acre
  9. South Acton
  10. South Aegean
  11. South Africa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: south (page history and authors); South (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-south.ogg, en-us-south.ogg.

Cite this entry: “south.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/south. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.