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sos

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SOS¹

  • /ˌɛs.əʊˈɛs/ UK
  • /ˌɛs.oʊˈɛs/ US

Where it comes from

From interpretation of the signal (· · · — — — · · ·), chosen merely as a sequence that is easy to recall and transmit, as normal Morse letters.

It is not, as is commonly believed, an abbreviation for "save our souls", "save our ship", or any other phrase.

noun SOS's · SOSes

  1. The conventional Morse code call made by a ship in distress. The crew sent a frantic SOS as they realised the scale of the disaster.

SOS²

  • /ˌɛs.əʊˈɛs/ UK
  • /ˌɛs.oʊˈɛs/ US

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of Secretary of State
  2. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of special order sale

phrase

  1. abbreviation, colloquial, initialism Initialism of slip on show: a warning to a woman that the underwear she has on can be seen.

SOS³

  • /ˌɛs.əʊˈɛs/ UK
  • /ˌɛs.oʊˈɛs/ US

noun

  1. uncountable A children's game in which players take turns to place S's and O's on a grid, collecting points by creating an "SOS" sequence.

SOS⁴

  • /ˌɛs.əʊˈɛs/ UK
  • /ˌɛs.oʊˈɛs/ US

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism, uncountable Initialism of shit on a shingle

SOS⁵

  • /ˌɛs.əʊˈɛs/ UK
  • /ˌɛs.oʊˈɛs/ US

phrase

  1. Commonwealth, abbreviation, historical, initialism Initialism of struck off strength or stricken off strength

    Opposite: TOS

sos⁶

noun

  1. plural plural of so

sos⁷

  • /sɒs/

interjection SoS

  1. Internet, humorous, nonce word A nonsense word commonly used in YouTube Poop by playing an audio clip forward and in reverse consecutively; said in reference to this editing style, and to describe palindromes and humorously symmetrized images. she JOJ on my SOS til i LOL

    Similar: joj, sus

SOs⁸

noun

  1. plural plural of SO

SoS⁹

interjection

  1. Alternative letter-case form of sos

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: then, thusly, thus, indeed, truthful, true, in order, systematic, soh, sol, and so, and then, mayday, ers, ray, wfa

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Cite this
MLA

"sos." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sos. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sos. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sos

Chicago

"sos." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sos.

BibTeX
@misc{sos_2026,
  title = {sos},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sos},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}