Jump To:

• southern
  southern

  adjective

  lying toward, situated in, or directed toward the south.
• Southern
  Southern

  noun

  Terry, 1924–95, U.S. novelist and screenwriter.

southern

¹ American  

[suhth-ern] / ˈsʌð ərn /

adjective

1. lying toward, situated in, or directed toward the south.

2. coming from the south, as a wind.

3. of or relating to the south.

4. Southern, of or relating to the South of the United States.

5. Astronomy. Southern, being or located south of the celestial equator or of the zodiac.

   a southern constellation.

---

noun

1. Often Southern southerner.

2. Southern, the dialect of English spoken in the eastern parts of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, in Florida, in the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and in southeastern Texas.

Southern ² American  

[suhth-ern] / ˈsʌð ərn /

noun

1. Terry, 1924–95, U.S. novelist and screenwriter.

---

southern ¹ British  

/ ˈsʌðən /

adjective

1. situated in or towards the south

2. (of a wind, etc) coming from the south

3. native to, inhabiting, or growing in the south

4. (sometimes capital) astronomy south of the celestial equator

---

Southern ² British  

/ ˈsʌðən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the south of a particular region or country

---

Etymology

Origin of southern

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English sūtherne; see south, -ern

Explanation

Southern means from the south, like a southern breeze. But if you call a group of people “y’all,” you might be Southern, a word which refers to the American South and usually gets a capital “S” — and a side of hush puppies. A southern breeze happens when wind is moving from the south to the north, and the Southern Hemisphere is south of the equator. When southern refers to the direction, it’s not capitalized; when it's used in the name of specific place, however, it is capitalized. Southern comes from south, which derives from a Germanic word meaning "sun-side."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

southern Southern

They include the southern coastal city of Tyre, home to a Roman triumphal arch and a second-century hippodrome.

From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026

“Rice in southern and southeast Asia is the big one,” said Andrew Watkins, a climate scientist at Monash University in Australia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

Brian Schaer, 43, a limestone miner from southern Iowa, sums up the inchoate resentment: “It’s frustrating when you don’t get your stuff going.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

We were at Lukavica barracks on the southern edge of Sarajevo.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

I lived then in a shack in the southern desert mountains of New Mexico, and the drive between the boat and the shack took almost exactly thirteen hours on Interstate 10.

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen

Thames Water - one of the cheapest - charges £4.21 and Southern the most expensive at £7.06.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

When he does speak, his words carry a faint Southern twang from his upbringing in Alabama.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

Treasury checks and hundreds of other checks belonging to individuals and businesses worth more than $8.1 million, then cashed or attempted to cash them at lenders throughout Southern California.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Southern California residents blasting air conditioning to get through the summer heat waves will get some relief this month, though not from the 100-degree temperatures.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

Southern colonies did not hesitate to invent ways to extend the terms of servitude, and the planter class accumulated uncultivated lands to restrict the options of free workers.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander