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Singular word that ends in 's' seems to be rare, not counting proper nouns. So far I only know lens. Is there other example?

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    Words ending in SS in spelling generally end in /s/. And lens ends in /z/, not /s/. It seems you're thinking of English as being primarily written; you'll find no end of irregularities, if that's what you're looking for. – John Lawler Jul 29 '15 at 17:32
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's a "list" question – FumbleFingers Jul 29 '15 at 17:52
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    There are many singular English nouns ending in s that came to the language from Greek, Latin, and, or French—for example, amanuensis, analysis, basis, bias, crisis, diagnosis, ethos, metamorphosis, mythos, prognosis, and trellis, along with many common plant names (such as amaryllis, coleus, and ficus). – Sven Yargs Jul 29 '15 at 18:29
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If you allow multiples of the letter s, there are a ton (class, pass, mass, etc).

If you restrict it to words that end with a single s, I suspect there are still a great many. Dias, bias, alias, octopus, cactus, and mucus all come to mind. Come up with common word endings that have an s and I think you can generate more.

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  • Now that you mentioned those words, I wonder if I had my daily dose of coffee yet... – Abel Cheung Jul 29 '15 at 16:45
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In keeping with your example of "lens," add "iris." In keeping with the puzzle nature of the question, "rebus."

Any medical condition ending in -itis, e.g., "bronchitis."

Any word ending with the suffix -osis, e.g., "hypnosis."

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  • But many of those biological terms don't have plural form, do they? – Abel Cheung Jul 30 '15 at 1:28
  • @AbelCheung They do, but they're not often used. Pneumonia is an inflammation of the alveoli (air sacs of the lungs), and bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchial tubes, but each has many different causes, each of which is a separate disease. So you might have a chapter in a medical text called "The Pneumonias and the Bronchitises." Some of the words take the Greek plural, thus "hypotheses." – deadrat Jul 30 '15 at 4:49

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