| soteriology | n. | doctrine of salvation | ||
| sotto voce | adv. | in an undertone, in a quiet voice, quietly | ||
| soubise | n. | onion sauce | ||
| soubrette | n. | lady’s maid in a theatrical production; maidservant | ||
| sough | v. | to sigh, to murmur, to make a rushing or murmuring sound | ||
| soup and fish | n. | tuxedo, evening clothes | slang | |
| souse | v. | to immerse or plunge something in water, etc.; to drench; to pickle in brine, etc. | ||
| soutane | n. | cassock of Roman Catholic clergy | ||
| spadix | n. | spike of tiny flowers | botany | |
| spadroon | n. | straight single-edged light sword of the 18th and 19th Centuries | ||
| Spahi | n. | French light cavalry formed primarily from natives from the Maghreb | ||
| spancel | n. | noosed rope used to hobble an animal | ||
| spandrel | n. | (architecture) space between arch and a rectangle enclosing that arch; space between extradoses of adjacent arches | ||
| spaniel | n. | fawning, submissive person | ||
| spark out | adj. | entirely unconscious | British | |
| sparrow-fart | n. | sunrise, dawn, very early in the day; useless person or thing | idiom | |
| spate | n. | flood, esp. sudden flooding of a river caused by heavy precipitation | British | |
| spathe | n. | large bract enclosing the flower bundle or spadix of some plants | ||
| spavined | adj. | afflicted with spavin, bony growth on lower hock joints of horses; lame, halt; decrepit | ||
| speak | v. | to communicate with at sea through semaphore or sound | nautical | |
| speccy | adj. | derogatory descriptor of one wearing glasses | slang | |
| specie | n. | coined money | ||
| specific | n. | particular remedy | ||
| spencer | n. | short tight jacket of 19th century, often trimmed with fur when worn by women and children | ||
| spicule | n. | tiny pointy thing, usu. in groups; huge gas jet shooting from surface of the sun | ||
| spikenard | n. | aromatic ointment derived from plant of the valerian family; such a plant | ||
| spile | n. | large wooden piling; wooden plug used as a spigot; to tap (a tree, a keg) by means of a spile | ||
| spillikins | n. | jackstraws, pick-up sticks | ||
| spindly | adj. | long and thin, esp. someone or something seeming weak or fragile | ||
| spinney | n. | small thicket | British | |
| spissitude | n. | density, thickness | ||
| spit | n. | measure based on length of a gardening spade | ||
| spital | n. | place for care of sick charity cases | ||
| splanchnomancy | n. | divination by examination of human entrails from victim sacrificed for that purpose | ||
| splash out | v. | to lavishly spend cash | British | |
| splenetic | adj. | bad-tempered, testy, peevish, irittable | ||
| splificate | v. | to annihilate, to obliterate, to destroy | slang | |
| sploot | v. | to lie flat upon the stomach with outstretched legs | ||
| spokeshave | n. | two-handled cutting implement with blade in the middle, used for shaping wheel spokes or other curved edges of wood | ||
| spondulics | n. | spending money (also spondulix or spondulicks) | slang | |
| spoony | adj. | silly, foolish (of persons); foolishly amorous | ||
| sprat | n. | small fish of the herring family; small thing of little consequence | ||
| sprezzatura | n. | studied nonchalance, art of making quite difficult work seem effortless | ||
| spring tide | n. | tide soon after a new or full moon; copious rush, swelling flow; springtime | ||
| springald | n. | 2 | young man, stripling | |
| springald | n. | 1 | medieval engine of warfare used for shooting large bolts | |
| sprog | n. | child; [RAF] young recruit | British | |
| spume | n. | froth, foam – esp. of the sea | ||
| squabash | v. | to crush, to squash | Scots | |
| squalid | adj. | foul, filthy; depraved |
