South

A compass rose with south highlighted

South is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.

South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of North and at right angles to East and West.

By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is South.

To go south using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 180°.

True south is the direction towards the southern end of the axis about which the earth rotates, called the South Pole. The South Pole is located in Antarctica. Magnetic south is the direction towards the south magnetic pole, some distance away from the south geographic pole.

It is the direction to the right of an observer facing east.

The etymology of South can be traced back to the Old English word suth, related to the Old High German word sund, and perhaps sunne in Old English with sense of "the region of the sun."