SOUTH
Yes, SOUTH was the Wordle answer on August 11, 2025 (Wordle #1514).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈsaʊ̯θ//ˈsawθ//ˈsɐʊ̯θ/
- Noun
-
The direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the southern side of the invariable plane.
“Germany is south of Denmark.”
- Noun
-
The southern region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
- Adjective
-
Toward the south; southward.
- Adjective
-
from the south.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: August 11, 2025 (#1514).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 11, 2025 (#1514).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How SOUTH performs as a guess
SOUTH is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.5% of games, misses completely in 24.5%, and leaves about 199 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,867 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 guesses in games solved within six turns.
Try your feedback pattern
Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe SOUTH used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How SOUTH performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches SOUTH in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SOUTH can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for SOUTH; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing SOUTH
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SOUTH.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SOUTH:
Research on SOUTH
Game-tree analysis and word research for SOUTH, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SOUTH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,644 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,765 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, because the two figures score different answer lists.
These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers). They do not use the site's working answer pool.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SOUTH is a kind of point or location.
Synonyms s southward southern southeast southwest southeastern
Opposites NORTH
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SOUTH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 251 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.7 of 5).
In a sentence
Nice is to the south.
He came from the south.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).