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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

southern.

Of, facing, situated in, or related to the south.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsʌðən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʌðɚn/Canada, General-American/ˈsaʊðɚn//ˈsaʊ.təɹn/Philippines
  1. Of, facing, situated in, or related to the south.

  2. Of or pertaining to a southern region, especially Southern Europe or the southern United States.

    The southern climate.
  3. Of a wind: blowing from the south; southerly.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English southerne, sothern, sutherne, from Old English sūþerne (“southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make”), from Proto-Germanic *sunþrōnijaz (“southern”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂un-, *sh₂wen-, r/n-stem alternation of *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Cognate with Scots southron, sudron (“southern”), Old Frisian sūthern, sūdern (“southern”), Middle Low German sūdern (“southern”), Middle High German sundern (“southern”), Icelandic suðrænn (“southern, tropical”). By surface analysis, south + -ern.

noun/ˈsʌðən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsʌðɚn/Canada, General-American/ˈsaʊðɚn//ˈsaʊ.təɹn/Philippines
  1. Synonym of southerner.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English southerne, sothern, sutherne, from Old English sūþerne (“southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make”), from Proto-Germanic *sunþrōnijaz (“southern”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂un-, *sh₂wen-, r/n-stem alternation of *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Cognate with Scots southron, sudron (“southern”), Old Frisian sūthern, sūdern (“southern”), Middle Low German sūdern (“southern”), Middle High German sundern (“southern”), Icelandic suðrænn (“southern, tropical”). By surface analysis, south + -ern.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.