Ess

//ˈɛs// name, noun, particle, verb

name, noun, particle, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The name of the Latin script letter S/s.

    "1998, Ricardo Corona, "These Esses" ("Eses esses"), in Other Shores (Outras Praias), translated by Ricardo Corona & Charles Perrone these esses / change in design / and senses themselves / $ // it's as if / the ess / were the sounds / of success"

  2. 2
    Initialism of evolutionarily stable strategy abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  3. 3
    Alternative letter-case form of ess. alt-of
  4. 4
    Something shaped like the letter S. (See esses)
  5. 5
    Initialism of electronic switching system. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    Abbreviation of energy storage system. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    Initialism of employee self-service. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  3. 8
    Initialism of earth system science. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  4. 9
    Initialism of explained sum of squares. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  5. 10
    Initialism of euthyroid sick syndrome. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  6. 11
    Initialism of electronic still store. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To move in a changing direction, forming the shape of a letter S.
Particle
  1. 1
    Yes. Cornwall, dialectal

    "'Big chap, edn' 'a?' I thought he was the biggest chap I had ever seen. 'Ess,' said Corin."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Initialism of Enterprise Storage Server. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  2. 2
    A surname from German.
  3. 3
    Initialism of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism

Synonyms

All synonyms
-a-ette-ine-ress-trixa

Antonyms

All antonyms
he-

Example

More examples

"He belongs to the ESS (English Speaking Society)."

Etymology

* As a north/Low German surname, from the archaic noun es, ehe (“swamp water”), possibly from a corruption of *ahu (“stream, river”). * As a Switzerland German/Alemannic German surname, from Ess (“pasture, grazing area”), from Proto-Germanic *atiska- (“grainfield”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₂edos- (“sort of cereal, grain”), related to Latin ador (“spelt”), Hittite [script needed] (ḫattāi-, “to cut (grain)”). * Also as a Swiss German surname, from a short form of Oswald. * As a Dutch surname, shortened from Van Ess, itself a variant of Van Es, from van + the placename Esch in North Brabant.

Related phrases

collar of essesde-essess-hooklong essshort essevolutionarily stable strategy

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.