# south

> English word · Noun · IPA /saʊθ/ · frequency rank #392

## Definitions
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.
2. The southern region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
3. In a church: the direction to the right-hand side of a person facing the altar.
4. The negative or south pole of a magnet

## Etymology
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, 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”).

## Easily confused with
- **suh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-suh)
- **sth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-sth)
- **such** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-such)
- **stout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-stout)
- **synth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-synth)
- **spout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-spout)
- **swath** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/south-vs-swath)
- **sou** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sou-vs-south)
- **sot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sot-vs-south)
- **sort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sort-vs-south)
- **soul** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soul-vs-south)
- **shut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shut-vs-south)
- **soft** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soft-vs-south)
- **soup** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soup-vs-south)
- **Seth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seth-vs-south)
- **sour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sour-vs-south)
- **slut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slut-vs-south)
- **sous** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sous-vs-south)
- **soot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soot-vs-south)
- **Soto** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soto-vs-south)

## Common misspellings (7)
`osuth`, `sotuh`, `souht`, `southh`, `soutth`, `ssouth`, `suoth`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/south