Meanings
nountrailing s (plural trailing s's)
plural trailing s's
- The s character, with a looser descending open form than the short s.
Trailing s, a narrow, elongated round s that dips below the baseline, appears at the end of words.
2013, The Medieval Thought Project, Stanford University, “The Straight s, Its Round cousin, and Its Ligatures”, in Bartholomew the Englishman On the Asp, archived from the original on 17 Dec 20251 more example
To a much greater extent than in Northern Textualis, round s was replaced at the end of words by the so-called trailing s, traced in two strokes instead of three or four and occupying less space on the line.
2003, Albert Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 107
Cite this entry
APA
trailing s. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trailing%20s
MLA
“trailing s.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trailing%20s. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trailing s,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trailing%20s.
Source: trailing s on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.