Nouns That Start With S

A noun is defined as a person, place, thing, or idea. They're often accompanied by articles like "a," "an," and "the." Nouns love to act as the subject of a sentence. For example, "The sandstorm kept me away from my Saharan adventure."

They also like to pop up as the object of a sentence, too. That means they'll come after the verb in the sentence. For example, "The fairy dropped sparkles on my head." Nouns also function as names, including people, cities, and more.

The letter S can do a whole lot more than sparkle and shine. It can also be served in our favorite spaghetti dish or spun into a dramatic saga. Ready for more? Here are 50 nouns starting with S.

1. Sable - a mammal of northern Eurasia with soft, dark fur
2. Sabotage - an intentional destruction of something
3. Sachet - a small bag filled with things that smell nice
4. Sacrifice - the act of giving up or forgoing something
5. Saddle - a padded seat on a horse or bike
6. Sadness - the state or emotion of being sad
7. Saga - a long story, especially about something dramatic or heroic events
8. Saltiness - the property of being salty
9. Sandstorm - a strong wind carrying clouds of sand and dust through the air
10. Satsuma - a small variety of orange; a type of Japanese pottery
11. Scale - a system or series of marks used for measuring
12. Scandal - a disgraceful incident, or result of actions that are considered morally unacceptable
13. Scarlet - a vibrant red color
14. Schemer - someone who plots or formulates plans
15. Script - the written words of a play, movie, or show
16. Sculpture - the art of making forms and figures in clay or other materials
17. Seashore - the land along the sea or ocean
18. Season - one of four divisions in a calendar year
19. Secret - something kept from public knowledge
20. Seeker - one who searches or looks for something
21. Selfishness - the condition of putting one’s own interests before others
22. Sensation - any sort of impressions of the senses
23. September - the ninth month of the year
24. Shade - an area of darkness caused by an object blocking light
25. Shadow - a reflection of something produced by light hitting the object
26. Shelter - a structure that provides cover or protection
27. Signal - a means of communicating a message
28. Silence - a complete absence of sound
29. Silver - a soft, grayish-white metal or color
30. Singer - a person who sings, especially professionally
31. Skeleton - the hard framework of an animal body that protects the organs
32. Skyline - the outline, as of buildings or mountains, against the sky; the line along which the sky seems to touch the earth
33. Slander - a false statement about someone that hurts their reputation
34. Smattering - a small amount of something
35. Smear - a dirty marking, stain, or smudge
36. Smoker - a person who habitually smokes cigarettes, pipes, etc.
37. Smudge - a stain, blur, or smear
38. Sneakiness - the quality or state of being deceptive or sly
39. Sneeze - a reflex used to expel objects in the nose to relieve irritation
40. Snore - a snorting sound made when asleep, caused by the vibration of the soft palate
41. Society - a group of people living as a community
42. Solitude - the state of being alone
43. Solution - the correct answer to a puzzle, problem, or difficult situation
44. Soulmate - one of two persons compatible with each other in disposition
45. Spaghetti - long strings of pasta
46. Sparkle - a glittery, glowing, or brilliant particle
47. Squishiness - the quality or state of being soft and pliable
48. Stadium - a large, usually open structure with tiers of seats for spectators
49. Stimulant - something that temporarily increases interest or the level of activity in a system, especially the nervous system
50. Submarine - a boat designed to stay and travel underwater for a long time

As you can see from the examples above nouns function in many capacities. In fact, there are more than 10 different types of nouns. If they’re referring to a person or place, they’re likely acting as a proper noun (e.g. Pinocchio, Dublin, Hawaii, Sweden, and the Empire State Building). An example of that would be, "Dublin has fantastic food."

The opposite of a proper noun is a common noun. These nouns refer to general, unspecified things. In the example above, Sweden is a proper noun. But, if that line simply read, "Our favorite city has fantastic food," you'd know the subject was a common noun. Common nouns aren’t capitalized or specific.

Then, there are compound nouns (e.g., toothpaste and haircut), countable nouns, possessive nouns, and pronouns. It’s quite common to see both nouns and pronouns in a single sentence: "Killian boarded the ship to get back to her.”

Some of those S-words were tricky, right? Some of them might be more familiar to you as verbs (e.g. sacrifice, smear, and sparkle). But it’s helpful to see them in their noun form, too.

Let’s continue the exploration with 10 S-words working in their noun capacity. Click on the link in each sentence to see more example sentences containing that S-noun:

1. Riley hopped on her horse’s saddle and raced off to find her prince.
2. Her sadness was apparent.
3. They will never recover from the scandal they created.
4. The mermaid swam along the seashore and wished upon a star.
5. Mary wondered why her shadow always followed her.
6. There was nothing in the cave but darkness and silence.
7. The construction workers came upon a skeleton in the old building.
8. As Santa slept, he let out a loud snore.
9. Modern society exchanges information on the internet.
10. Shall we go to the stadium to watch Owen play soccer?

Does this list of nouns leave you searching for more S-words? WordFinder by YourDictionary has a superb list of words that start with S for you to explore. Skim the complete list of terms, which is organized by length, or use the on-screen filters to adjust your search. It’s easy to narrow results to terms with a specific word count or that include certain combinations of letters. You can even find S-words that end with a designated letter. You’ll probably be inspired to seek even more word lists after reviewing this one.

The versatile letter S... It’s a good one, right? Although S-words often shapeshift in and out of verbs and nouns, don’t forget about their function as adjectives. When they slip into this form, they become supremely sensational, adding sparkle and shine. Have some fun with these 20 adjectives also starting with the letter S.