Words that start with S

Salt is a mineral that is essential to all animal life, but is toxic to most land plants. Salt is found in the sea, in your blood and sweat and in solid form as rock salt away from the sea.
Salt is collected to use for making food either by mining a deposit of rock salt, or by evaporating salty water until only the salt is left behind.
The photo is of the surface of a salt lake with piles of salt scraped into mounds, ready to take away.

Salty means having strong taste of salt.

Some snacks that might be salty are nuts, popcorn or chips when there is a lot of salt.

Salvation Jane, also known as Patterson's curse or Viper's Bugloss, was a garden plant in Europe but once introduced to Australia it became one of the worst weeds in the country. It grows to about 60cm tall and has purple flowers. It is toxic and can kill some animals like sheep and horses if they eat too much of it.

Samoyeds are large, long-haired white dogs from Siberia. They were bred to herd reindeer, to pull sleds and to keep their owners warm at night. They are a very energetic breed and need lots of space and regular exercise or they will get bored and destructive. They are friendly dogs and don't make very good guard dogs. One of their interesting features is they don't have a 'doggy' smell and they don't shed much, so are classed as 'hypoallergenic'.

Sandals are a type of shoe that is simply a sole held onto the bottom of your foot by some straps.

Sandpaper, originally called glasspaper, is paper with something rough stuck to one side. Sandpaper is used for removing old paint from things, for making wood or similar surfaces smooth, or for roughening up a surface.
There are hundreds of different varieties of sandpaper.

Sandstone is a common sedimentary rock that is made from sand, compressed together in layers. It is a soft rock and exposed sandstone is easily eroded by the wind.

Sandy means that something is made up of or covered in sand. Beaches and deserts are often sandy.

Santa Claus is also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas or Kris Kringle. On Christmas eve he visits all the good children of the world and brings them presents.

Sapphires are deep blue gemstone quality corundums. They are made from aluminium oxide crystals, the same as rubies, with the blue colour from traces of titanium and iron. Sapphires are very hard and have industrial uses as well as being used in jewelry.