Meaning of -s | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Used to form regular plurals of nouns.
   morpheme
2. Used to form the third-person singular indicative present tense of verbs.
   morpheme
3. Used in the formation of certain English adverbs.
   morpheme
4. Possessive marker, indicating that an object belongs to the word bearing the marker.
   morpheme
5. Hypocoristic suffix
   colloquial, humorous, informal, morpheme, sometimes
6. Used to form many pluralia tantum (nouns that are almost or entirely without singular forms).
   morpheme
7. Used in various other indicative present tenses
   dialectal, morpheme, nonstandard
8. When appended to a number ending in at least one 0, expresses a range of numbers which share the digits before some or (usually) all of the 0s; frequently used for decades, centuries and temperatures.
   morpheme

Equivalents

Examples

“one computer → five computers; Kennedy → Kennedys; hanger-on → hangers-on; lapful → lapfuls; cul-de-sac → cul-de-sacs; standby → standbys; push-up → push-ups; gin and tonic → gin and tonics; pair → pairs; beef → beefs”

“shorts”

“sunglasses”

“We often look back on the 1960s [the years from 1960 to 1969] with rose-tinted glasses.”

“The Industrial Revolution went into full-swing during the 1800s [the years from 1800 to 1899 – but see usage notes].”

“The temperature today will be in the low 30s.”

“He placed in the 200s in the end.”

“High indicators of PFAS (in the 500s) were also found in a Chick-fil-A sandwich wrapper and in fiber bowls at Cava, a Mediterranean restaurant chain. Indicator levels in the 300s and 400s were found in a bag of cookies at Arby’s, bamboo paper plates at Stop & Shop, and in a bag for both cookies and French toast sticks at Burger King. Levels of PFAS indicators in the 200s were found in a Sweetgreen paper bag for focaccia, additional items at Cava, and in bags for french fries, cookies and Chicken McNuggets at McDonald’s.”

“to eat → he eats”

“I likes what I likes”

“forward + -s → forwards”

“downward + -s → downwards”

“alway + -s → always”

“sometime + -s → sometimes”

“betime + -s → betimes”

“while + -s → whiles”

“betide + -s → betides”

“toward + -s → towards”

“beside + -s → besides”

“evening + -s → evenings”

“unaware + -s → unawares”

“Sunday + -s → Sundays”

“night + -s → nights”

“hers; its; ones (now one’s); theirs”

“(neopronouns): eirs; hirs; pers; thons; xyrs; zirs”

“devils doorbell; dogs-bane; St. Marys; (obsolete) kings”

“Babs; moms; pops; homes; toots”

CEFR level