S
S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet.
Semitic Šîn (bow) was pronounced as /S/ as the modern English digraph SH. In Greek, there was only one phoneme /s/ and no /S/, so Greek σιγμα (sigma) came to represent the Greek /s/ phoneme. The name "sigma" probably comes from the Semitic letter "Sâmek" and not "Šîn". In Etruscan and Latin, the /s/ value was maintained, and only in modern languages, S came to represent other sounds, like /S/ in Hungarian or /z/ in English, French and German (in English rise; in French lisez, "read! (imperative pl.)"; in German lesen "to read").
An archaic alternative form of s, ſ, called the long s or medial s, was used at the beginning or in the middle of the word; the modern form, the short or terminal s, was used at the end of the word. For example, "sinfulness" is rendered as "ſinfulneſs" using the long s. The use of the long s died out by the end of the 19th century, largely to prevent confusion with the minuscule f. The ligature of ſs became the German ess-tsett ( ß ).
Sierra represents the letter S in the NATO phonetic alphabet. The letter s represents the voiceless alveolar fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Meanings for S
- In biochemistry, S is the symbol for serine.
- In calendars, S is often the abbreviation for Saturday or Sunday, or the month September. U is sometimes used for Sunday to avoid confusing it with Saturday.
- In chemistry,
- In computing,
- In education, S stands for a satisfactory grade.
- In financial securities, S is the stock symbol for Sears, Roebuck and Co.
- In international licence plate codes, S stands for Sweden.
- In mathematics,
- In the metric system,
- In physics,
- In probability and statistics, t may refer to Student's t-distribution.
Similar letters and symbols
- Ŝ, ŝ — S-circumflex
- Ş, ş — S-cedilla
- Š, š — S-caron
- Ș, ș — S with comma below (used in Romanian)
- ʂ — S with hook (used in the International Phonetic Alphabet for voiceless retroflex fricative)
- Ṡ, ṡ — S with dot above (used in old Irish Gaelic)
- Ṣ, ṣ — S with dot below (used in Indic transliteration)
- Ṥ, ṥ — S with acute and dot above
- Ṧ, ṧ — S with caron and dot above
- Ṩ, ṩ — S with dots below and above
- Ƨ, ƨ — reversed S (used in Zhuang transliteration)
- ſ — long s
- ʃ — Esh (used in the International Phonetic Alphabet for voiceless postalveolar fricative)
- ∫, ∫ — the integral sign
- $ — the dollar sign
- ß — the German Eszett or "sharp s"
See also
Two-letter combinations starting with S:
