Jump To:

• s
  s

  abbreviation

  satisfactory.
• 's
  's

  an ending used in writing to represent the possessive morpheme after most singular nouns, some plural nouns, especially 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, (orwitness' ), king of England's, or anyone's.
• S
  S

  noun

  the 19th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
• -s
  -s

  a native English suffix used in the formation of adverbs.
• s.
  s.

  abbreviation

  saint.
• S.
  S.

  abbreviation

  (in prescriptions) mark; write; label.
• -'s
  -'s

  suffix

  forming the possessive singular of nouns and some pronouns
• -s'
  -s'

  suffix

  forming the possessive of plural nouns ending in the sound s or z and of some singular nouns

s

¹ American  

abbreviation

1. satisfactory.

2. signature.

3. small.

4. soft.

5. south.

---

s ² American  

Symbol.

1. second.

---

's ³ American  

1. an ending used in writing to represent the possessive morpheme after most singular nouns, some plural nouns, especially 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, (orwitness' ), king of England's, or anyone's.

---

's ⁴ American  

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 ⁵ American  

Archaic.

1. a contraction of God's, as in 'swounds; 'sdeath; 'sblood.

---

's ⁶ American  

1. a contraction of us, as in Let's go.

---

's ⁷ American  

1. a contraction of as, as in so's to get there on time.

---

S ⁸ American  

[es] / ɛs /

Or s

noun

• S's,
  plural
• Ss,
  plural
• s's,
  plural
• ss
  plural

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 ⁹ American  

abbreviation

1. satisfactory.

2. Baseball. sacrifice.

3. Baseball. save.

4. Saxon.

5. sentence.

6. short.

7. Electricity. siemens.

8. signature.

9. single.

10. small.

11. soft.

12. Music. soprano.

13. South.

14. Southern.

15. state (highway).

16. Grammar. subject.

---

S ¹⁰ American  

Symbol.

1. the 19th in order or in a series

2. (sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 7 or 70.

3. second.

4. Biochemistry. serine.

5. Thermodynamics. entropy.

6. Physics. strangeness.

7. Chemistry. sulfur.

---

-s ¹¹ American  

1. a native English suffix used in the formation of adverbs.

   always; betimes; needs; unawares.

---

-s ¹² American  

1. an ending marking the third person singular indicative active of verbs.

   walks.

---

-s ¹³ American  

1. 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 -s3 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 -s3 has no plural value, are adjectives denoting socially unacceptable or inconvenient states (bananas; bonkers; crackers; nuts; preggers; starkers ); cf. -ers.

---

-s ¹⁴ American  

1. a suffix of hypocoristic nouns, generally proper names or forms used only in address.

   Babs; Fats; Suzykins; Sweetums; Toodles.

---

s. ¹⁵ American  

abbreviation

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.

---

S. ¹⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. (in prescriptions) mark; write; label.

---

S. ¹⁷ American  

abbreviation

1. (in prescriptions) let it be written.

---

S. ¹⁸ American  

abbreviation

1. Fellow.

---

S. ¹⁹ American  

abbreviation

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. Signor.

12. Small.

13. Socialist.

14. Society.

15. sol.

16. South.

17. Southern.

18. (in Ecuador) sucre; sucres.

19. Sunday.

---

S ¹ British  

symbol

1. satisfactory

2. Society

3. small (size)

4. South

5. chem sulphur

6. physics

   1. entropy

   2. siemens

   3. strangeness

7. currency

   1. (the former) schilling

   2. sol

   3. (the former) sucre

---

abbreviation

1. Sweden (international car registration)

-'s ² British  

suffix

1. forming the possessive singular of nouns and some pronouns

   man's

   one's

2. forming the possessive plural of nouns whose plurals do not end in -s

   children's

3. forming the plural of numbers, letters, or symbols

   20's

   p's and q's

4. informal contraction of is or has

   he's here

   John's coming

   it's gone

5. informal contraction of us with let

   let's

6. informal contraction of does in some questions

   where's he live?

   what's he do?

---

s. ³ British  

abbreviation

1. see

2. semi-

3. shilling

4. singular

5. son

6. succeeded

---

S. ⁴ British  

abbreviation

1. Saint

2. school

3. Sea

4. Signor

5. Society

---

s ⁵ British  

/ ɛs /

noun

1. the 19th letter and 15th consonant of the modern English alphabet

2. a speech sound represented by this letter, usually an alveolar fricative, either voiceless, as in sit, or voiced, as in dogs

3. 1. something shaped like an S

   2. ( in combination )

      an S-bend in a road

---

-s ⁶ British  

suffix

1. forming the plural of most nouns

   boys

   boxes

---

-s ⁷ British  

suffix

1. forming the third person singular present indicative tense of verbs

   he runs

   she washes

---

-s ⁸ British  

suffix

1. forming nicknames and names expressing affection or familiarity

   Fats

   Fingers

   ducks

---

-s' ⁹ British  

suffix

1. forming the possessive of plural nouns ending in the sound s or z and of some singular nouns

   girls'

   for goodness' sake

---

s ¹⁰ British  

symbol

1. second (of time)

---

Usage

See contraction.

See contraction.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• S's
  plural
• Ss
  plural
• s's
  plural
• ss
  plural

Etymology

Origin of 's³

Middle English -es, Old English

Origin of -s¹¹

Middle English -es, Old English; ultimately identical with 's ¹

Origin of -s¹²

Middle English (north) -( e ) s, Old English (north); originally ending of 2nd person singular, as in Latin and Greek; replacing Middle English, Old English -eth -eth ¹

Origin of -s¹³

Middle English - ( e ) s, Old English -as, plural nominative and accusative ending of some masculine nouns

Origin of -s¹⁴

Probably from the metonymic use of nouns formed with -s ³, as boots or Goldilocks

Origin of S.¹⁶

From the Latin word signa

Origin of S.¹⁷

From the Latin word signētur

Origin of S.¹⁸

From the Latin word socius

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

s 's S -s s. S. -'s S's Ss s's ss

The message being sent by the market was clear: It’ s becoming increasingly obvious that there’s no easy fix for Washington’s persistent deficits.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

The program—and other initiatives s at the company—represent a growing revenue stream, but still account for only a fraction of the automaker’s revenue and total production capacity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

At the same time, oxygen isotope analysis of fossil tooth enamel revealed that the pygmy elephants depended heavily on river water that became harder to find s conditions grew drier.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2026

Emails seem to show Andrew trying to promote Rowland's financial ventures, at a time when Andrew was the UK' s trade envoy.

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026

After Washington listened to the unanimous advice of all his cabinet officers and reluctantly agreed to serve a second term, he tucked away Madison s draft for another day.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Gov. Shin Hyun-song ’s remarks will likely reinforce market expectations that the central bank will resume tightening as soon as next month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

The norteño anthem gets mixed into T.I. ‘s “What You Know.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025

Following Ivan McKee's 's latest announcement, Greer said it was "the right move".

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2025

The OVfM 's chair David Goldstone will not be able to participate in the investigation into the "mega projects", because of his previous senior roles with HS2 and the Submarine Delivery Agency.

From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2025

There was a great golden glory lasting a half hour each week when Mr. Morton came to Francie ’s room to teach music.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Meanwhile a baseline Xbox Series S console now costs £430 - a roughly 43% increase on its previous £300 price tag.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

Under typical conditions, Po and So waves form when P and S waves scatter repeatedly through layered structures inside an oceanic plate.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026

The glory would be in seeing how quickly Nicolson could hustle a new and alarmingly large Bentley Continental GT S up the driveway without collecting any hay bales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Indian designer Manish Malhotra will also debut during Haute Couture Week on Wednesday, taking the number of Indian designers to appear on the calendar to four -- alongside Rahul Mishra, Gaurav Gupta and Vaishali S.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

“No. I just kept it simple stupid. K, I, S, S.”

From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi

I am struck by how busy the the waiting room -s, with several patients of varying ages and ethnicity willing to take part.

From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2023

However, some English dialects omit the -s ending for singular verbs or use a singular verb with a plural subject: The man ask for help.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

Poets, Poetasters, Poeticules Sirs: In re poet, -s, -asters, -icules under Books in the issue of Dec. 26, my curiosity will allow me no peace.

From Time Magazine Archive

If the word ends in a sound which cannot add -s, a new syllable is made; as, niche—niches, race—races, house—houses, prize—prizes, chaise—chaises, etc.

From An English Grammar by James Witt Sewell

The form is plural, however much the meaning may be singular; so that the -s in Wale-s is the -s in fathers, &c.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

Lowe’s Co s. started reopening some of its Texas stores Monday, although 26 remained closed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2017

Before Getty, she was finance chief for McCann Worldgroup, a subsidiary of Interpublic Group of Co s., a publicly traded advertising company.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2017

Ms. Ganim wrote: "There are unanswered? s. price of paper, which days will publish, no. of positions, organization mode."

From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2012

By January 1938, when the price was doubled from 1 s. to 2 s., circulation had climbed to 6,000.

From Time Magazine Archive

“I heard ... it was on the new s. I just wanted ... is it him? Have they arrested him?”

From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins

That makes the discovery of a previously unknown small amphibian such as S. labreae especially remarkable.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

"I'm really more of a paleoecologist, paleogeographer, not a taxonomist," says Dr. Cruz, who noticed unusual features in the Tar Pits specimens that distinguished S. labreae from known spadefoot toads.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

He noted that Woody Creek has long been viewed as the “bohemian suburb of Aspen,” as evidenced by the land being used as a parking spot by writer Hunter S. Thompson when they moved in.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026

Ulysses S. Grant Jr., the son of the president who was the Union’s victorious commander, was a guest at Sandberg’s when he died there in his sleep in September 1929.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

Frank S. gives me a thumbs-up from over by the big industrial mixer.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

I'm glad to think I owe you the review that pleased me best of all the reviews I ever had; the one I liked best before that was -'s on the ARABIANS.

From Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 1 by Robert Louis Stevenson

I. and II. of the heavily illustrated 'Adventures of David Balfour' at 7s. 6d. each, sold separately. -'s letter was vastly sly and dry and shy.

From Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson

He was silent, and the corners of his mouth were drawn down just like -’s at an evening party.

From Letters from the Cape by Lady Lucie Duff Gordon

The Model S’s success caught traditional automakers off guard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

She says the close-knit trio, who dubbed themselves the Three S's, called them "happy Fridays" as it meant another week of work and school was over.

From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2025

He focused on what he called the three S’s: “Speed, story and spectacle.”

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

“There are four S’s when it comes to heat exposure,” Levy says.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 5, 2023

By the time she got to the S’s, I was shaky, because every one of the children who had gone before me had come back crying, pressing a wad of cotton against their arm.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

Ss and Zs were challenges for his reconstructed tongue.

From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2024

We built more Series Xs than we did Series Ss.

From The Verge ● Nov. 24, 2020

From there, he coached me on saving my Ss for big-ticket, pluralizing plays and putting high-value letters on double-letter squares.

From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2017

Last June, another sculpture by Schmalz titled “Homeless Jesus” was unveiled outside downtown’s Ss.

From Washington Times ● May 23, 2016

Crenshaw’s tail rose and fell, making lazy Ss in the air.

From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate

Add 160s to get the s’s to the right.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 22, 2020

"They were Kentucky guys with beautiful, perfect-pitch harmonies and great diction. All those vowels and consonants, those s's and t's, every one of them killed me," he said.

From Reuters ● Jan. 4, 2014

It’s thin and high-pitched, with elongated vowels and extra-sibilant s’s — the voice of a crooner more than a sportscaster.

From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2012

The President-Elect pondered s's and c's, and answered: "D-e-s-s-i-c-a-t-e."

From Time Magazine Archive

I found the expected f’s for s’s and a few other things that didn’t turn up as often, but I got used to them very quickly.

From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler

She ultimately settled down with Lisa Hintelmann, a former magazine editor who ss the director of talent and entertainment partnerships at Audible.

From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2017

Until then, they are ss screening phone calls and keeping the television turned off.

From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2017

M ss ng P eces has nine employees, and Kuschnir expects they all would have voted even without a day off to do it.

From Inc ● Nov. 2, 2012

He demonstrated this by making an odd whistling noise, which sounded something like "s, s, ss, ss, s".

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2011

I noted a deliberate change in his accent—the softened hiss of the consonants in his words, the dental chh of West Bengali softening into the sibilant ss of the East.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee