Words That Start With S: Your Scrabble Cheat Sheet

Suppose you’re stockpiling stellar vocabulary. Whether you’re playing games (like Scrabble or Words with Friends) or slaving away as a serious student, surround yourself with new words to ensure success. Want to surprise your squad with slick sayings? Throw some S-words into your stories. S shows up in the second half of the English alphabet, as the 19th letter, but it starts many spectacular words! So, if you’re searching for a satisfying way to study vocabulary, we suggest seeking out more words that start with the letter S

We’ve created this list of words for you, organized by the number of letters in each word. Many of these words have more than one meaning. For simplicity, we’ve only listed one definition for each word. Keep in mind, this word list doesn’t contain every single English word that starts with S; however, it’s a useful introduction to this very special letter.

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Here are some words that start with S [2-15 letter words]

15-Letter Words

semiterrestrial – Adjective | Living in both land and water

suburbanization – Noun | The process of becoming more conventional or suburban

superfluousness – Noun | The quality of being unnecessary or excessive

superstructural – Adjective | Pertaining to the relationship between an idea or entity and it’s more fundamental base

14-Letter Words

semicentennial – Noun | A 50th anniversary celebration

sentimentalism – Noun | A display of emotional overindulgence

septuagenarian – Noun | A person in their 70’s

servomechanism – Noun | An automated power system in which the controlling mechanism is engaged by a low energy signal

13-Letter Words

schadenfreude – Noun | Enjoyment derived from the misfortune of others

semipermeable – Adjective | Partially penetrable, usually only by small molecules

semisynthetic – Adjective | Produced by chemically altering a natural material

superabundant – Adjective | Excessive

12-Letter Words

sacrilegious – Adjective | Pertaining to a lack of respect for sacred objects, people, or places

salutatorian – Noun | The second-highest ranking graduate

stereophonic – Adjective | Pertaining to sound reproduction using two separate channels

superstition – Noun | Fear based on supernatural beliefs

11-Letter Words

sublimation – Noun | A psychological term for redirecting psychic energy

substantial – Adjective | Well-constructed

supposition – Noun | Hypothesis

symmetrical – Adjective | Exhibiting balanced proportions

10-Letter Words

scandalous – Adjective | Defamatory and shocking

semiannual – Adjective | Twice yearly

stereotype – Noun | A fixed image conforming to an oversimplified, perceived pattern

subsection – Noun | A subordinate part

9-Letter Words

sentiment – Noun | An idea influenced by emotion

sovereign – Adjective | Supreme

subscribe – Verb | To sign up to receive a publication or service

summarize – Verb | To reduce to a brief overview

8-Letter Words

semantic – Adjective | Pertaining to meaning in language

spelling – Noun | The sequence of letters needed to form a word

splendid – Adjective | Excellent

stunning – Adjective | Surprising

7-Letter Words

sceptic – Noun | A person prone to doubt or disbelief (also spelled skeptic) 

somehow – Adverb | By some unspecified means

squalid – Adjective | In poor condition from neglect or poverty

squelch – Verb | To suppress or quell

6-Letter Words

sequel – Noun | The next installment in a series

scummy – Adjective | Unpleasant and dirty

spunky – Adjective | Spirited

syzygy – Noun | Alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line

5-Letter Words

sajou – Noun | A monkey found in South and Central America

salvo – Noun | The discharge of guns in a military salute

shoji – Noun | A paper screen, used as a sliding partition in Japanese homes

shuck – Verb | To strip of an outer covering

skiff – Noun | A small boat

squab – Noun | A couch

squib – Noun | A short, humorous article or speech

4-Letter Words

scab – Noun | The crust formed over a wound

samp – Noun | Porridge made from ground corn

scam – Verb | To defraud

scop – Noun | A bard or poet

scot – Noun | Money owed or paid

scow – Noun | A flat-bottomed boat used to transport freight

scud – Verb | To move swiftly, as if propelled forward

scum – Noun | A slimy, filmy covering

scup – Noun | A porgy found in Atlantic coastal waters

seel – Verb | To sew shut the eyelids

skep – Noun | A hive

3-Letter Words

sab – Noun | A person engaged in direct action to ensure that an activity does not take place (British English)

sax – Noun | An informal term for saxophone, a single-reed, woodwind instrument

sib – Noun | A relative by blood

ska – Noun | A musical genre of Jamaican origin

sop – Verb | To soak in liquid

sty – Noun | A pigpen

suq – Noun | A market stall in North Africa or the Middle East (also spelled souk or suk) 

2-Letter Words

sh – Interjection | Expression to urge or command quiet (also spelled shh) 

si – Noun | The seventh tone of the major scale (variant of ti or te) 

so – Adverb | To a great degree

By looking at this list, you may be able to identify some common prefixes. Words that start with “semi” often have something to do with half or part of a whole. Words beginning with “sub” involve being subordinate or beneath. Understanding these linguistic patterns can help you to intuit what a word means, even when you don’t have a dictionary handy.

Spice up your language and show off your skills by speaking words that start with the letter S. Somebody’s got to reign supreme when it comes to word finders, anagram jumbles, and crossword puzzles. Shouldn’t it be you? From so to semiterrestrial, this word list showcases the splendid stuff every scop needs to squelch the competition. Just study these words, and you’ll be sermonizing with stunning S-words soon enough.

Click here for more Scrabble cheat sheets.

Sources: 

  1. https://word.tips/words-start-with/s/
  2. https://www.merriam-webster.com
  3. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/
  4. https://www.dictionary.com

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