# South
**South** is one of the four cardinal directions, the direction along a meridian 90 degrees clockwise from east and directly opposite north; on the mariner's compass it is the point 180 degrees clockwise from due north.[1](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south) In everyday use the word also names the southern part of a region or country, the southern half of the Earth, and, capitalized, particular regions such as the southern United States.[1](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south) South is also a physical direction defined by the [Earth's rotation](https://www.edgepedia.org/earths-rotation) axis and magnetic field, and both of those references move, which makes south the subject of navigation practice as well as geography.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Definition | The direction along a meridian 90° clockwise from east; the compass point 180° from due north[1](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south) |
| Etymology | Old English *suþ*, from Proto-Germanic *sunthaz*, perhaps literally "sun-side", related to the PIE root *sawel-, "the sun"[2](https://www.etymonline.com/word/south) |
| South magnetic pole (2025) | 63.851°S, 135.078°E per the World Magnetic Model; drifting about 9 km per year[3](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/wandering-geomagnetic-poles) • [4](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-12/WMM%20SoGF%20Dec2025%20508.pdf) |
| Geomagnetic south pole | 107.32°E, 80.65°S based on the WMM2020 coefficients for 2020.0[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions) |
| Compass behavior | At the south magnetic pole the north end of a dip needle points up, declination is undefined, and compasses are unreliable where horizontal intensity is below 2000 nT[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions) |
| Map orientation | Placing south at the top of a map is a cartographic convention, not a physical property of Earth; historical examples include al-Idrīsī's world map and McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World (1979)[6](https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/download/1663/1937?inline=1) |
## Etymology
The English word goes back to [Old English](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-english) *suþ* or *sūth*, from the Proto-Germanic *sunthaz*, a form also behind [Old Saxon](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-saxon) and Old Frisian *suth*, Dutch *zuid*, and German *Süden*. The etymology connects the word to the sun: the reconstructed literal sense is "sun-side", from the same root as *sunnon*, "sun", which traces to the Proto-Indo-European root *sawel-*. The American Heritage Dictionary explains the connection concretely: in the [Northern Hemisphere](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-hemisphere) the daytime sun crosses the southern half of the sky, so the sunny side of a hill or house is its south side.[2](https://www.etymonline.com/word/south) • [1](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south)
As a noun naming the cardinal point opposite north, "south" is attested from the late 13th century, and the adjective from about 1300. Germanic forms were borrowed into [Romance languages](https://www.edgepedia.org/romance-languages), giving French *sud* and Spanish *sur*, perhaps through [Old Norse](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-norse) *suðr*; these replaced the Latin *meridies*, "midday", in common use, though *meridional* survives as an adjective meaning southern.[2](https://www.etymonline.com/word/south)
The word also anchors regional names. The southern states of the United States have been collectively called "the South" since 1779, in early use often meaning only Georgia and [South Carolina](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-carolina). In Britain, the "south country" meant the land below the Tweed, in England below the Wash, and in Scotland below the Forth.[2](https://www.etymonline.com/word/south) The dictionary also records "the South" as the set of developing nations largely located south of the developed nations of the Northern Hemisphere.[1](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south)
## Magnetic south
Two different "south poles" appear in geomagnetism, and they are computed rather than surveyed points. The dip poles are the places where the magnetic field points vertically: a dip needle stands vertical there, the horizontal intensity is zero, and a compass shows no direction because declination is undefined. Based on the current World Magnetic Model, the 2025 location of the South Magnetic Pole is 63.851°S, 135.078°E, which places it in the [Southern Ocean](https://www.edgepedia.org/southern-ocean) rather than on the [Antarctic](https://www.edgepedia.org/antarctic) continent.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions) • [3](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/wandering-geomagnetic-poles) The geomagnetic poles are instead computed from the dipole component of a field model; the geomagnetic south pole lay at 107.32°E, 80.65°S in the WMM2020 coefficients for 2020.0, close to the antipode of the geomagnetic north pole.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions)
Both poles move. Since January 1, 2025, the south magnetic dip pole has drifted at an average speed of 9 km per year, with no significant change in direction, while the north dip pole moved at 36 km per year over the same period.[4](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-12/WMM%20SoGF%20Dec2025%20508.pdf) The field itself is irregular enough that satellites and roughly 200 operating magnetic observatories are needed to map it, and the magnetic equator, unlike the geographic equator, slowly changes position.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions)
**Navigation near and in the southern hemisphere.** A compass does not point at the pole as a place; it aligns with the horizontal component of the local field, so its reading differs from true north by the magnetic declination, which varies with both location and time.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions) • [7](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-declination?qt-news_science_products=0) Around the magnetic poles the World Magnetic Model defines "blackout zones" where horizontal intensity falls below 2000 nT and compasses are unreliable, with a surrounding caution zone between 2000 and 6000 nT.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions) At the south magnetic pole itself, the north end of a dip needle points up rather than down.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions)
Compasses are built for the hemisphere they serve. Because the field dips downward into the Earth, a needle must be weighted to stay horizontal: in the Northern Hemisphere the weight sits on the south end of the needle, and in the [Southern Hemisphere](https://www.edgepedia.org/southern-hemisphere) it sits on the north end. A compass carried to the wrong hemisphere will not rotate freely and will not work properly.[5](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions)
## South on the map
Most modern maps place north at the top, but this is a convention rather than a property of the Earth, which has no top or bottom. South-up world maps have a long history: the cartographic literature cites al-Idrīsī's world map and McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World from 1979 among examples, and fifteenth-century southern-oriented maps include Andreas Walsperger's world map of 1448, the Borgia World Map, and the Zeitz World Map.[6](https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/download/1663/1937?inline=1) • [8](https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/historical-context/the-world-map/south-up-orientation.html%3E) The Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García's *América Invertida* is a well-known modern south-up map, placing South America with the south at the top.[9](https://repositorio.fgv.br/server/api/core/bitstreams/54203c64-161d-48ed-9286-604e46645d30/content)
The convention matters practically as well as symbolically. Because most world maps put north at the top, readers develop a north-south bias in how they arrange and interpret space; studies in which participants worked with south-up oriented maps found that this bias disappeared.[10](https://www.corgan.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/Corgan2021CuriosityReport.pdf) Interactive maps have loosened the convention further: when a mapping application zooms out to a globe that the user can spin freely, north-up orientation becomes one choice among many.[6](https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/download/1663/1937?inline=1)
## References
1. [south, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=south)
2. [Etymology of south, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/south)
3. [Wandering of the Geomagnetic Poles, NOAA NCEI](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/wandering-geomagnetic-poles)
4. [December 2025 State of the Geomagnetic Field, NOAA NCEI](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-12/WMM%20SoGF%20Dec2025%20508.pdf)
5. [Geomagnetism Frequently Asked Questions, NOAA NCEI](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/geomagnetism-frequently-asked-questions)
6. [Review of Why North Is Up: Map Conventions and Where They Came From, Cartographic Perspectives](https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/download/1663/1937?inline=1)
7. [What is declination?, U.S. Geological Survey](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-declination?qt-news_science_products=0)
8. [South-Up Orientation, Fra Mauro exhibit, Museo Galileo](https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/historical-context/the-world-map/south-up-orientation.html%3E)
9. ["South-Up Maps": Mapping Postcolonial Studies, FGV Repositório](https://repositorio.fgv.br/server/api/core/bitstreams/54203c64-161d-48ed-9286-604e46645d30/content)
10. [But What's in a Map, You Ask?, Corgan Curiosity Report](https://www.corgan.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/Corgan2021CuriosityReport.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › General geography and geographic reference › Coordinates and geocoding*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license