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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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.
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Kari Lisa Johnson
I’m an award-winning playwright with a penchant for wordplay. After earning a perfect score on the Writing SAT, I worked my way through Brown University by moonlighting as a Kaplan Test Prep tutor. I received a BA with honors in Literary Arts (Playwriting)—which gave me the opportunity to study under Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. In my previous roles as new media producer with Rosetta Stone, director of marketing for global ventures with The Juilliard School, and vice president of digital strategy with Up & Coming Media, I helped develop the voice for international brands. From my home office in Maui, Hawaii, I currently work on freelance and ghostwriting projects.
