Word.ws English Dictionary

-(s)

-(s) suffix: added to the end of a singular noun (which normally uses the suffix -s to become plural) to indicate that the noun represents an unknown number which may be one or more than one.

Suffix (1)

-(s)

  1. Added to the end of a singular noun (which normally uses the suffix -s to become plural) to indicate that the noun represents an unknown number which may be one or more than one.
    • The dog(s) got into the garden.
    • The singer(s) will perform live.

Suffix (2)

-(s)

  1. Added to the end of a verb in place of the suffix -s when the subject of the verb may be one or more than one.
    • The dog(s) get(s) into the garden.
    • The singer(s) perform(s) live.

Origin of -(s)

From -s (suffix forming regular plurals of nouns) and ( ) (encloses optional variants or variant elements).

From -s (suffix forming the third-person singular indicative present tense of verbs) and ( ) (encloses optional variants or variant elements).

Questions about -(s)

What does -(s) mean?
-(s) means added to the end of a singular noun (which normally uses the suffix -s to become plural) to indicate that the noun represents an unknown number which may be one or more than one.
What part of speech is -(s)?
-(s) is a suffix.

Words near -(s) in the dictionary

  1. -'d
  2. -'er
  3. -'nt
  4. -'s
  5. -'st
  6. -(s)
  7. ----hole
  8. -0r
  9. -2
  10. -30-
  11. -4j

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -(s) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-(s).” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-(s). Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.