South is one of the four main compass directions, opposite north. When you face the rising sun in the morning (east), south is to your right. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, south is the direction toward the equator. The South Pole sits at the planet's southern tip, opposite the North Pole.

When we talk about the South in American history, we usually mean the southeastern states like Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. These states share a regional culture and played a central role in the Civil War. People also use “the South” more broadly to describe countries or regions in the southern part of the world, though this depends on context.

You can use south as an adverb too: birds head south for the winter, flying toward warmer places. If a plan goes south, it means things are falling apart or getting worse, like when your carefully organized party turns chaotic.

The word appears in many place names: South America, South Dakota, South Africa. On maps, south conventionally points toward the bottom of the page.