Words Starting With "S"

1. Sabotage – deliberate destruction
2. Sacrilegious (A) – desecrating; profane
3. Sacrosanct (A) – most sacred; very holy; inviolable
4. Sagacious (A) – perceptive; shrewd; having insight; clever
5. Sage (N) – person celebrated for wisdom
6. Salacious (A) – lascivious; lustful; lecherous; randy;
7. Sallow (A) – yellowish; sickly in color; “We were disturbed by her sallow complexion due to jaundice"
8. Salutary (A) – tending to improve; beneficial; wholesome; “The punishment has salutary effect on the body, as he became a model student”
9. Salvage – to save, to rescue from destruction or harm
10. Sanctimonious (A) – showing that one feels morally better than other people; displaying ostentatious or hypocritical devoutness; “You don’t have to be so sanctimonious to prove that you are devout”
11. Sanctity (N) – holiness
12. Sanctum (N) – holy place
13. Sanguinary (A) – with much bloodshed; sanguinary battle
14. Sanguine (A) – cheerful, hopeful, optimistic; having a red complexion; “Let us not be too sanguine about the outcome, something could go wrong”
15. Sap (N) – liquid in a plant that carries food to all parts
16. Sap (V) – gradually weaken by taking away strength or vitality; diminish; undermine; “The element kryptonite had an unhealthy effect on superman; it sapped his strength”
17. Sardonic (A) – disdainful; sarcastic; cynical; mocking; scornful; a sardonic smile
18. Sate (V) – satisfy to the full; cloy; when hunger sated, the lion dozed
19. Saturnine (A) – gloomy; “Do not be misled by his saturnine countenance, he is not gloomy as he looks
20. Satyr (N) – half-human, half-bestial being in the court of Dionysus; portrayed as wanton and cunning; man with very strong sexual desire; “He was like a satyr in his lustful conduct”
21. Savant (N) – scholar; sage; “Our faculty includes many world famous savants”
22. Savory (V) – enjoy the taste or flavor of something; have a distinctive flavor of something
23. Scabbard (N) – case for a sword; sheath; “The drill master told the recruit to wipe the flood from his sword before slipping it back into the scabbard”
24. Scad (N) – plethora; a great quantity; I have a scad of clothes.
25. Scalpel (N) – surgical knife
26. Scanty (A) – meager; insufficient; “Thinking his helping of food was scanty, Oliver Twist asked for more”
27. Scapegoat (N) – someone who bears the blame for others
28. Scepter [N] - a decorated rod carried by a king or queen at ceremonies as a symbol of their power
29. Schematic (A) – relating to an outline or diagram; using a system of symbols
30. Schism (N) – division or split; strong disagreement, especially in religious organization over doctrine, in which one group stops recognizing the authority of others
31. Scintilla (N) – ‘not a scintilla of something’ means not the slightest amount of something; shred; least bit; “You have not produced a scintilla of evidence to support your argument
32. Scintillate (V) – give off sparks; sparkle; diamonds scintillating in the candlelight
33. Scoff (V) – gibe; mock; ridicule; “He scoffed at dentist until he had his first toothache”; speak contemptuously; eat greedily
34. Score (N) - A written form of a musical composition; parts for different instruments appear on separate staves on large pages
35. Scotch (V) – stop (especially a rumor etc.) being believed; thwart; stamp out; impede; hinder; “Ganesh tried to scotch the rumor that he had been lecherous towards his girl students”
36. Scourge (N) – lash; whip; severe punishment; whip for flogging people; person or thing that causes suffering; “The new boss was the scourge of the inefficient”
37. Scruple (N) – feeling that prevents one from doing or allowing something that one thinks may be wrong; “Have you no scruples about buying a stolen goods”; hesitation; also V
38. Scuffle (V) – struggle confusedly; scuffle between police and demonstrators
39. Scurrilous – very rude and damaging one’s reputation; offensive; indecent
40. Scurrilous (A) – obscene; indecent; abusive and insulting; “Your scurrilous remarks are especially offensive because they are untrue”
41. Scurry (V) – run with short quick step; move briskly
42. Scurvy (A) – contemptible; worthless; mean; despicable; “That was a scurvy trick to play on an old lady”
43. Scuttle (V) – sink; “The sailor decided to scuttle their vessel rather than surrender it to the enemy”
44. Seamy [A] – unattractive; sordid; unwholesome; the seamy side of life is crime and corruption
45. Sear [V] – char; burn; brand; “Accidentally brushing against the hot grill, she seared her hand badly”
46. Seasoned [V] – experienced
47. Secession [N] – withdrawal from a membership of an organization; “The secession of the southern states provided Lincoln with his first inauguration”
48. Sect [N] – separate religious body
49. Sedate [A] – composed; grave; calm and dignified (behavior of a person); “The parents were worried because they felt their son was too quiet and sedate”
50. Sedentary [A] – done sitting down; typing is a sedentary job
51. Sedulous – carefully organized; diligent; painstaking; laborious
52. Serendipity – the act of making fortunate discovery
53. Sermon (N) – an address of a religious nature usually delivered during a church service
54. Severance – payment that an employee receives upon leaving a job as compensation for the loss of employment
55. Sieve (N) - a tool for separating solids from liquids or larger solids from smaller solids, made of a wire or plastic net attached to a ring. The liquid or small pieces pass through the net but the larger pieces do not.
56. Skimp – to try to spend less time and money on something that is really needed
57. Spangle (N) - a small piece of shiny metal or plastic used to decorate clothes; also V; Laxmi wanted to spangle her sari.
58. Spangle (V) - to cover or to decorate something with small pieces of something shiny; a small piece of shiny metal or plastic used to decorate clothes (N); sequin
59. Specter (N) - something unpleasant that people are afraid might happen in the future; ghost
60. Squad (N) – a small unit of army
61. Steak (N) - A slice of meat cut from the fleshy part of an animal or large fish
62. Stentorian – extremely loud and powerful
63. Stultify (adj) – to make you feel very bored and make unable to think new ideas; “His ideas stultified the students’ creativity”
64. Subaltern – inferior in rank or status
65. Sublime (A) – exalted, grand or awesome quality; worthy of adoration or reverence
66. Subprime – collapsing banks and tumbling stock market
67. Succor (V) – to help somebody who is suffering or having problem
68. Sumptuous (A) – costly; lavish; luxurious to food or perhaps a room or the furnishings therein; “The king won the affections of his court by hosting sumptuous feasts (banquets)
69. Supine (adj) – lying on the back or face upward
70. Suppliant – asking earnestly and submissively; entreating; beseech
71. Surpass (V) – to go beyond in anything good or bad; to excel; to exceed
72. Surreptitious – clandestine
73. Swipe – to strike with swiping blow