Dictionary
S
sPronunciation: (es), [key]—
n.,
—pl. S's or Ss, s'sor ss.
1. the 19th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
2. any spoken sound represented by the letter
S or
s, as in
saw, sense, or
goose.
3. something having the shape of an
S.
4. a written or printed representation of the letter
S or
s.
5. a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter
S or
s.S
1. satisfactory.
2. Saxon.
3. sentence.
4. short.
5. Elect.siemens.
6. signature.
7. single.
8. small.
9. soft.
10. Music.soprano.
11. South.
12. Southern.
13. state (highway).
14. Gram.subject.
S
—
Symbol.
1. the 19th in order or in a series, or, when
I is omitted, the 18th.
2. (sometimes l.c.) the medieval Roman numeral for 7 or 70. Cf.
Roman numerals.
3. second.
4. Biochem.serine.
5. Thermodynam.entropy.
6. Physics.strangeness.
7. sulfur.
s
1. satisfactory.
2. signature.
3. small.
4. soft.
5. south.
s
—
Symbol.
second.
's
an ending used in writing to represent the possessive morpheme after most singular nouns, some plural nouns, esp. those not ending in a letter or combination of letters representing an
s or
z sound, noun phrases, and noun substitutes, as in
man's, women's, baby's, James's, witness's, (or
witness'),
king of England's, or
anyone's.'s
1. contraction of
is: She's here.
2. contraction of
does: What's he do for a living now?
3. contraction of
has: He's just gone.'s
Archaic.
a contraction of
God's, as in
'swounds; 'sdeath; 'sblood.'s
a contraction of
us, as in
Let's go.'s
a contraction of
as, as in
so's to get there on time.-s
a native English suffix used in the formation of adverbs:
always; betimes; needs; unawares. Cf.
-ways. -s
an ending marking the third person sing. indicative active of verbs:
walks. -s
an ending marking nouns as plural (
boys; wolves), occurring also on nouns that have no singular (
dregs; entrails; pants; scissors), or on nouns that have a singular with a different meaning (
clothes; glasses; manners; thanks). The pluralizing value of
-s 3 is weakened or lost in a number of nouns that now often take singular agreement, as the names of games (
billiards; checkers; tiddlywinks) and of diseases (
measles; mumps; pox; rickets); the latter use has been extended to create informal names for a variety of involuntary conditions, physical or mental (
collywobbles; d.t.'s; giggles; hots; willies). A parallel set of formations, where
-s 3 has no plural value, are adjectives denoting socially unacceptable or inconvenient states (
bananas; bonkers; crackers; nuts; preggers; starkers); cf.
-ers. Also,-es.-s
a suffix of hypocoristic nouns, generally proper names or forms used only in address:
Babs; Fats; Suzykins; Sweetums; Toodles. S.
1. Sabbath.
2. Saint.
3. Saturday.
4. Saxon.
5. (in Austria) schilling; schillings.
6. School.
7. Sea.
8. Senate.
9. September.
10. shilling; shillings.
11. (in prescriptions)
a. mark; write; label.
b. let it be written.
12. Signor.
13. Small.
14. Socialist.
15. Society.
16. Fellow.
17. sol
3 (def. 1).
18. South.
19. Southern.
20. (in Ecuador) sucre; sucres.
21. Sunday.
s.
1. saint.
2. school.
3. second.
4. section.
5. see.
6. series.
7. shilling; shillings.
8. sign.
9. signed.
10. silver.
11. singular.
12. sire.
13. small.
14. society.
15. son.
16. south.
17. southern.
18. steamer.
19. stem.
20. stem of.
21. substantive.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
