ess
/ˈɛs/
ess noun: the name of the Latin script letter S/s.
Noun (1)
ess (plural esses)
- The name of the Latin script letter S/s.
- these esses / change in design / and senses themselves / $ // it's as if / the ess / were the sounds / of success1998, Ricardo Corona, "These Esses" ("Eses esses"), in Other Shores (Outras Praias), translated by Ricardo Corona & Charles Perrone
- I have drunk en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar from the ef-ell-oh-doubleyou-ee-ar-ess in his gee-ay-ar-dee-ee-en many a time.2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170
- Something shaped like the letter S. (See esses)
Verb
ess (third-person singular simple present esses, present participle essing, simple past and past participle essed)
Particle
ess
- Yes.
- 'Big chap, edn' 'a?'
I thought he was the biggest chap I had ever seen.
'Ess,' said Corin.1898, The Cornish Magazine, volume 1, page 64 - Overheard in Cornwall: 'Oh, ess, diden' ee know I gived up keepin' ducks? They wus allus comin' 'ome lost'.1951, John William Robertson Scott, The Countryman (page 64)
- 'Big chap, edn' 'a?'
Proper noun (1) capitalized: ESS
ESS
- Initialism of Enterprise Storage Server.
- Initialism of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.
Noun (2) capitalized: ESS
ESS (countable and uncountable, plural ESSes)
- Initialism of evolutionarily stable strategy
- Initialism of electronic switching system.
- Abbreviation of energy storage system.
- Initialism of employee self-service.
- Initialism of earth system science.
- Initialism of explained sum of squares.
- Initialism of euthyroid sick syndrome.
- Initialism of electronic still store.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ess
Ess (plural Esses)
- A surname from German.
Noun (3) capitalized: Ess
Ess (plural Esses)
- Alternative letter-case form of ess.
ess meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Tagalog
ess in Hindi
- name of the letter S, s
- एस es
ess in Marathi
- name of the letter S, s
- एस es
ess in Bengali
- name of the letter S, s
- এস es
ess in Tagalog
- name of the letter S, s
- es, ese
More languagesFewer languages
- ess in Arabic
- إِس ʔis
- ess in Malay
- es
- ess in Indonesian
- es
- ess in Thai
- เอส ées
- ess in Vietnamese
- ét, sờ, xờ mạnh, xờ nặng
Forms of ess
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | esses |
| alternative form | es |
| plural | ESSes |
| plural | Esses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | esses |
| present participle | essing |
| past participle | essed |
| past | essed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Esses |
Origin of ess
* 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.
Words formed from ess
- collar of esses
- de-ess
- ess-hook
- long ess
- short ess
Words that rhyme with ess
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- SMS
- success
- compress
- largesse
- ness
- profess
- confess
- distress
- regress
- depress
- excess
- guess
- prepossess
- undress
- CBS
- ingress
- oppress
- redress
- transgress
- assess
- cess
- duress
- fess
- fluoresce
- Hesse
- less
- mayoress
- obsess
- tress
- unless
- yes
- accresce
- acquiesce
- aggress
- BESS
- caress
- clothes press
- congress
- defervesce
- digress
- foulness
- Hess
- intumesce
- jess
- lazy S
- liquesce
- repress
- second-guess
Questions about ess
- What does ess mean?
- Ess means the name of the Latin script letter S/s.
- What is ess in Hindi?
- Ess in Hindi is एस (es). See Ess meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ess?
- Ess can be a noun, a verb, a particle or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ess?
- Ess is pronounced /ˈɛs/.
- What is the plural of ess?
- The plural of ess is esses.
Words near ess in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ess (page history and authors); ESS (page history and authors); Ess (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ess.wav.
Cite this entry: “ess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.