Word.ws English Dictionary

-z

-z suffix: used as a substitute for -s in marking the plural of nouns. Usually used in words in which the -s suffix is actually pronounced /z/.

Suffix (1)

-z

  1. (Internet, Leet, humorous, slang) Used as a substitute for -s in marking the plural of nouns. Usually used in words in which the -s suffix is actually pronounced /z/.
    • Boyz are always trouble, while girlz just play with their Bratz dolls.
    • He lovez me and I love my warez.

Suffix (2)

-z

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, UK) Forms nicknames, especially of personal names.
    • Barry + -z → Baz
    • Sharon + -z → Shaz
  2. (UK) Forms colloquial variants of words.
    • sorry + -z → soz
    • tomorrow + -z → tomoz

Origin of -z

An eye dialect spelling variant of -s.

From a mutation (specifically a zetacism) of the rhotic consonant /ɹ/ to /z/. While standalone suffixation (such as soz and Baz) gained wide recognition in British print during the 1980s, the underlying morphophonological shift is attested significantly earlier in Australian English via the derived non‐rhotic suffix -zza (such as Bazza for Barry), which has been in print since at least the 1960s.

Words formed from -z

Questions about -z

What does -z mean?
-z means used as a substitute for -s in marking the plural of nouns. Usually used in words in which the -s suffix is actually pronounced /z/.
What part of speech is -z?
-z is a suffix.

Words near -z in the dictionary

  1. -yer
  2. -yl
  3. -ylene
  4. -ylidene
  5. -yne
  6. -z
  7. -zepine
  8. -zilla
  9. -zoan
  10. -zoic
  11. -zoite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -z (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: “-z.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-z. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.