southern
/ˈsʌðɚn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.84 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, facing, situated in, or related to the south.
adj
Of or pertaining to a southern region, especially Southern Europe or the southern United States.
noun
Synonym of southerner.
adj
From or pertaining to the southern part of any region.
adj
From or pertaining to the South, the south-eastern states of the United States, southern portions of some other states (e.g., Southern California), or to the inhabitants or culture of that region.
American usage
name
A surname.
name
Example Sentences
- "The southern climate."
- "From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip."
- "A group of Thai researchers found the spider during an expedition to Phang-Nga province in southern Thailand to research the diversity and distribution of tarantulas in the country."
- "Force prevails most with the northerns, reason with the inhabitants of a temperate or middle climate, superstition with the southerns; thus astrology, magic, and all mysterious sciences have come from the Chaldeans and Egyptians."
- "The peace which the French leaguers made soon after with Louis XL, for money and offices, did not satisfy the southerns, whose views in this patriotic war had been wholly different."
- "This last formed a strong contrast, by its simplicity and its austere bearing, with the old army of Italy, enriched in the beautiful plains which it had conquered, and composed of brave, fiery, and intemperate Southerns."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: southerne, sūþerne, *sunþrōnijaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsʌðɚn/
- British English: /ˈsʌðən/
Usage
- American usage
Inflected Forms
more southern (comparative)
most southern (superlative)
southernmost (superlative)
southerns (plural)
Sotheran (alternative)
Sothern (alternative)
Sotheron (alternative)
Southan (alternative)
Southerin (alternative)
Southon (alternative)
Southorn (alternative)
Sudran (alternative)