'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.
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."