Why Isnt Phonetic

Spelled the Way It Sounds??

Or, as it is more commonly known, our
Spelling Rules Book
-3rd EditionFebruary, 2002

Valerie Tarrant
Hexco Academic Publishing
3rd Edition Published February, 2002

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

Notes:
The dictionaries used for researching this book dont always agree, and I have not chosen
any particular dictionary as an authority instead of another. Rather, in many cases, where two
sources spelled words differently, I have included both spellings. Primarily, I have used The
American Heritage Dictionary and Websters Third International Dictionary as my guide.
In most cases, I have omitted words which the dictionaries call slang, obsolete, or
archaic.
I have also, at points, used part of a pronunciation scheme that Ive used for my spelling
bee study materials for years, because I find it simpler than the diacritical marks used by most
dictionaries. A summary of that scheme is as follows:
ii=sign eh=care uh=ago ay=wade ah=calm aw=paw a=cap
i=hit e=pet ee=heat oh=home oo=too ow=how u=put
I have included a bibliography at the end of the book which lists most of the materials I
used as reference.
Another notation I have used which may not be entirely clear at first, is the indication
that a word may also be capitalized. I have indicated this as follows:
caddo, C meaning the lowercase version is more common, but uppercase is acceptable, or
both are used, or
Ndorobo (n) meaning that the uppercase version is more common, but lowercase is
acceptable, or both are used.
The rest of the book should be self-explanatory.

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

Reprint 3rd Edition Copyright 2002
Reprint 2nd Edition Copyright 1997
Copyright 1995, Hexcos Spelling Sisters Publishing
All Rights Reserved
Credits:
Author: Valerie Tarrant
Editing: Linda Tarrant, Jennifer Greenhall, and Huntley Tarrant
(Thanks, guys!!)

To Order Additional Copies:

Hexco, Inc - P.O. Box 199 - Hunt, TX 78024
1-800-725-2627 - www.hexco.com

Dear Reader:
Weve all been taught, since early elementary school, that there are certain rules for
spelling English words, and so have assumed that if we knew all these rules, wed presumably
never misspell anything. So why, then, arent any of us able to recall more than a handful of
rules, and why do we misspell words all the time? The problem is not that we dont know the
rules, but that there really are none that always work. We have some conventions for spelling
words that hold true sometimes, but for every convention, there is a seemingly infinite number of
exceptions.
In this book, Ive attempted to give you as many of the conventions as Ive seen, and
explain how they work, but in addition, tell you when they dont work. Ive given, in almost every
case, a list or lists of words which dont follow the rule, and in some cases, explained to the
best of my abilities, why the words dont follow the rules.
In some other cases, where I dont know of a convention one can use to determine a
particular spelling, Ive just given lists of words that are spelled a particular way. For example,
when determining whether a word ends in -er, -or, or -ar, I dont have any guidelines, but instead
have listed all the -ar and -or words for you to look through for visual recognition, and you can
assume that pretty much anything else will be an -er word.
For those spellers interested in the more esoteric words in the English language, Ive also
included a couple of lists. The first is a list of words with funny double letters. These are words
such as markkaa, bhikku, egueiite, and sayyid, as well as a host of others. The second list
includes words with funny first letter combinations, like bdelloid, ctenodus, tjaele, and again, a
host of others.
This brings us to the second half of the book: the Foreign Language Conventions. We all
know that English is composed of words from as many origins as there are languages. Ive
included some guidelines for spelling some of the more common languages from which English
words are derived, such as French, Spanish, German, and a few more, as well as lists of words
derived from them. Following these, Ive included some lists of words from more unusual
languages, like Yiddish, Welsh, Dutch, and Turkish. These lists, though they dont have any
guidelines for spelling the words, should give you a picture of what words of these derivations
look like in general, and may help you spell one of them later.
Ive started with the only spelling rule we all think we know: I before e except after c... etc.
etc. and given some examples of words where the rule works. Following this, there is a
tremendous number of categories of exceptions. I hope this will be helpful. I dont expect anyone
to study and memorize all the exceptions or even all the types of exceptions, but if youll read
over them, theyll at least be familiar.
Good luck and good spelling!

Valerie
P.S. If youve got rules you use that I havent included, PLEASE send them to me. You can mail
these to me, call Hexco with the new rules, or email me at [email protected]. Thanks!

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

Why So Weird??
A Brief Synopsis of the Historical Development of English Spelling
Youve probably often wondered why so many English words are spelled with seemingly
illogical letter combinations. For example, why isnt knight spelled nite? Weve got both an
extra k at the beginning and an extra g in the middle of this one. Believe it or not, there actually
was some logic behind some of these spellings at one point. Whether it makes sense to keep
these spellings is under some debate, however.
First, keep in mind that English is spoken differently in different parts of the world. As a
native Texas speaker, Im critically aware that my English pronunciation and choice of words is
entirely different than that of my peers in New York. Even more extreme is British versus
American pronunciation. There are also other countries all over the world which speak English,
and all of them differently.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, the first version of our alphabet was created from the 23letter Latin alphabet, along with four additional symbols. These 27 letters had to represent nearly
40 phonemes, or individual sounds. This in itself causes some problems, as a single letter has to
be used in different combinations to represent different sounds.
After the Norman conquest in England, much of our language was transcribed by French
scribes who introduced such conventions as qu for cw (queen), gh for h (right), soft c (cell, or
circle), and ie for ee (thief).
The printing process itself caused even more spelling changes. One of the main problems
was that the first English printer was English, but had lived in Holland for nearly thirty years, so
had adopted many of their spelling conventions, such as ghost instead of gost. These early
printers also, in an effort to make all the lines on one page the same length, shortened and
abbreviated certain words, instead of adding extra spaces. Thus we were first introduced to our
good friend, silent e.
In the l5th century, many, if not most, of the vowels in our language changed their
pronunciations. This is the primary reason for the diversity of vowel spellings in words like
mouse, ray, road, and hide. Similarly, letters that had been pronounced during the Anglo-Saxon
period, like the k in knife, became silent letters, but were not dropped from the spellings.
Still later, in the 16th century, it was fashionable to make words look more like their
Greek and Latin roots. For example, the g was added to reign (from Latin regno) and the b added
to debt (from Latin debitum.) Unfortunately, many mistakes were made here. For example, the s
was added to island, as it was thought to derive from Latin insula, when, in actuality, it derives
from an Anglo-Saxon word which doesnt contain an s.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, English borrowed a host of new words from
other languages, like Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. Thus new spelling
patterns were introduced from each of these sources.
The result is a language with essentially no spelling system of its own, but one with
spellings adopted from every imaginable source, and then changed for the last four or five
hundred years. With this in mind, I leave you with this compilation of spelling rules for
English and wish you luck.

Table of Contents
WHY SO WEIRD?? ..................................................................................................................................................4
CONVENTIONAL SPELLING RULES .................................................................................................................7
I-Before-E Rule......................................................................................................................................................7
Summary of i-before-e rules...........................................................................................................................14
ADDING SUFFIXES ..........................................................................................................................................15
Dropping Final e before a suffix: ...................................................................................................................15
Adding k before a suffix:................................................................................................................................17
Doubling final letter before a suffix: ..............................................................................................................18
Changing y to i before adding a suffix ...........................................................................................................19
Adding -ly to form an adverb: ........................................................................................................................20
-ible and able Rules ......................................................................................................................................20
More Suffix Rules ..........................................................................................................................................24
PREFIX RULES ..................................................................................................................................................25
dis- and dys- ...................................................................................................................................................26
PLURAL RULES ................................................................................................................................................28
Adding -s or -es to form plurals: ....................................................................................................................28
Plurals of Words Ending with o: ..................................................................................................................30
Hyphenated or Compound Words: .................................................................................................................33
POSSESSIVE RULES:........................................................................................................................................34
Possessives of singular nouns: .......................................................................................................................34
Possessive of plural nouns:.............................................................................................................................34
Possessive of proper names:...........................................................................................................................34
LESS CONVENTIONAL ENGLISH SPELLING RULES .................................................................................35
-ia- versus -ai- ......................................................................................................................................................35
British spelling variations ....................................................................................................................................35
TRICKY WORD ENDINGS ..................................................................................................................................36
-cious/ -tious/ -ceous ............................................................................................................................................36
-cion / -sion / -tion................................................................................................................................................37
-ise / -ize / -yze / -yse...........................................................................................................................................39
-ine / -yne .............................................................................................................................................................40
-us / -ous ..............................................................................................................................................................41
-ant / -ent / -ance / -ence.......................................................................................................................................44
-er / -or / -ar..........................................................................................................................................................47
-cede / -ceed / -sede- ............................................................................................................................................53
-ify / -efy ..............................................................................................................................................................53
-itis / -itus .............................................................................................................................................................53
-cy / -sy ................................................................................................................................................................56
Summary of Tricky Word Endings: .....................................................................................................................57
NUMERIC PREFIXES ...........................................................................................................................................58
FUNNY FIRST LETTERS .....................................................................................................................................58
FUNNY DOUBLE LETTERS ................................................................................................................................66

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

FOREIGN LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS ..........................................................................................................71
GREEK ................................................................................................................................................................72
Greek prefixes: ...............................................................................................................................................74
Greek roots:....................................................................................................................................................75
Greek suffixes: ...............................................................................................................................................81
Greek Mythology ...........................................................................................................................................82
LATIN .................................................................................................................................................................85
-ae words ........................................................................................................................................................85
Assimilations:.................................................................................................................................................87
Latin Etymology.............................................................................................................................................89
Latin prefixes............................................................................................................................................90
Latin roots.................................................................................................................................................93
Latin suffixes ..........................................................................................................................................103
Roman Mythology........................................................................................................................................105
FRENCH ......................................................................................................................................................106
SPANISH .....................................................................................................................................................115
ITALIAN......................................................................................................................................................120
GERMAN ....................................................................................................................................................127
JAPANESE ..................................................................................................................................................132
RUSSIAN.....................................................................................................................................................134
HEBREW.....................................................................................................................................................136
MISCELLANEOUS LANGUAGE LISTS ..................................................................................................138
AMERICAN INDIAN............................................................................................................................138
AFRIKAANS .........................................................................................................................................140
BANTU ..................................................................................................................................................142
DUTCH ..................................................................................................................................................142
CHINESE ...............................................................................................................................................144
CZECH...................................................................................................................................................144
HAWAIIAN ...........................................................................................................................................144
HUNGARIAN........................................................................................................................................146
ICELANDIC...........................................................................................................................................146
MAORI...................................................................................................................................................146
PASHTO ................................................................................................................................................148
PORTUGUESE ......................................................................................................................................148
PERSIAN ...............................................................................................................................................150
SWEDISH ..............................................................................................................................................151
TURKISH...............................................................................................................................................151
WELSH ..................................................................................................................................................152
YIDDISH................................................................................................................................................152
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................................................153
INDEX ....................................................................................................................................................................154

Conventional Spelling Rules

The most common of the spelling rules is perhaps the , which is generally remembered
in a childrens rhyme:
Use i before e except after c or when sounded like <ay> as in neighbor or weigh.
This rhyme has served many of us well for many years, but it only works up to a certain
point. The following will outline some other guidelines for spelling words with ie or ei
combinations, as well as list some of the exceptions and categories of exceptions.
If the ie or ei combination is preceded by r or l, the i usually comes before the e.
The following words follow the conventional ie rule, and though they are by no means all the
words which follow the rule, they should give you an idea of how the rule works:
reprieve
feign
achieve
retrieve
field
believe
shield
grief
brief
siege
neighbor
cavalier
vein
receipt
chief
weigh
receive
clothier
wield
rein
cockatiel
relief
diesel
The rest of this section will be devoted to the numerous exceptions and categories of exceptions to the
i-before-e rule.
When c is pronounced <sh> or <ch>, it is followed by -ie
abortifacient
absorbefacient
ancient
calefacient
coefficient
conscience
conscient
conscientious
deficient
efficient
facient

febrifacient
glacier
inconscient
liquefacient
mutafacient
nescient
objicient
omniscient
parturifacient
perficient
prescient

proficient
putrefacient
rubefacient
somnifacient
sorbefacient
stupefacient
sufficient
tubifacient
tumefacient
unconscient

Note that a vast majority of the above listed words come from only two root words:

14

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

sheila (Australian proper name)

weigela
13. The following words are also exceptions to the ie rule, but are from various origins and
languages:
apartheid
Afrikaans (-heid, -hood )
hacienda
Spanish
issei
Japanese
landsleit
Yiddish
lei
Hawaiian
leister
Scandinavian
lwei
Bantu
pichiciego, pichiciago
Spanish
reis
Portuguese
sei
Norwegian
sensei
Japanese
sheik
Arabic
steinbok, var. of steenbok
Afrikaans
teiid
Portuguese
Summary of i-before-e rules
Please remember that the above lists are not intended to be comprehensive, covering every
appearance of an e and i combination, but rather should give you many guidelines from
which to work when approaching one of these words. In summary:
1. Conventional: i-before-e except after c, etc. etc.
2. R and l precede -ie3. C precedes -ie- when it is pronounced <ch> or <sh>
4. Latin:
a. plurals from -eus words
b. -eus or -ea words plus suffix beginning with i5. Greek roots which contain combinations of i and e
6. Latin roots which contain combinations of i and e
7. French derivations
8. German derivations (Long i sound is spelled ei and long e sound is spelled ie
9. International Scientific Vocabulary (ISV) endings -eine, -ein, and -eid
10. Prefix re- plus any word beginning with i11. A couple other minor lists of exceptions are included as well

15

ADDING SUFFIXES
Some of the following rules should also be familiar to you, as they are generally part of the
elementary school curriculum, and are necessary to spell different forms of verbs and
nouns that are commonly used.
Dropping Final e before a suffix:
If a word ends in e, retain the e when adding a suffix that begins with a consonant. Drop the
final e when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added.
accommodate
% accommodating
commence
% commencing &
commencement
fulfill
% fulfillment
promote
% promoting
When a word ends in a silent e preceded by a consonant, the e is usually retained when a suffix
is added beginning with a consonant and omitted for a suffix beginning with a vowel.
(Modern dictionaries often have dual forms listed as acceptable.)
come
% coming
race
% racial
fine
% fineness, finer
spite
% spiteful, spiting
remove
% removable, removing
exceptions:
abridge
% abridgment or abridgement
acknowledge
% acknowledgment
awe
% awful
due
% duly
judge
% judgement or judgment
move
% moveable or movable
true
% truly
Exceptions to the final e rule:
Words that dont follow the rule on dropping the e when adding ing :
A. words ending in -ee:
(Again, not a comprehensive list, but one to give you a picture of what these words look like)

agree
congee
corroboree
decree
demaree
emcee

%
%
%
%
%
%

agreeing
congeeing
corroboreeing
decreeing
demareeing
emceeing

fee
filigree
flee
free
fricassee
garnishee

%
%
%
%
%
%

feeing
filigreeing
fleeing
freeing
fricasseeing
garnisheeing

57

horsy
itsy-bitsy
lousy
massy
messy
mossy
mousy
mussy

newsy
noisy
nosy
outdoorsy
palsy-walsy
prissy
prosy
queasy

rosy
sassy
semiglossy
slimpsy
slimsy
startsy
sudsy
teensy

teensy-weensy
tipsy
tricksy
uneasy
unfussy

Summary of Tricky Word Endings:

1. -cious / -tious / -ceous:
a. There is no good rule to distinguish between -cious and -tious, but -tious is the more
common of the two.
b. The -ceous ending is really -aceous, and often refers to a taxonomic group, which
differs from the uses of the other two endings.
2. -cion / -sion / -tion
a. The <zh> sound indicates -sion, while <sh> sound could be any of the three.
b. If another form uses t in the ending, pick -tion; the same applies to -sion.
c. If the base word ends in a d or d sound, pick -sion.
3. -ise / -ize / -yze / -yse
a. Lyse and paralyse are the only two -yse words (and paralyse can also be paralyze.)
b. The list of -yze words is short enough to memorize or at least recognize.
c. The letter v usually precedes -ise.
d. Most -ize words are verbs.
e. The -ise words have a fair number of verbs, but arent predominantly so like the -ize
list.
4. -ine / -yne: The easiest thing to do with these is to learn to recognize the -yne list.
5. -us / -ous
a. Most -us words are nouns, and -ous words are adjectives.
b. There are a few words which break the rule, but the rule is surprisingly reliable.
6. -ant / -ent / -ance / -ence
a. The best rule for these endings is to try to determine whether the word has an alternate
form which begins with an a. If it does, the ending is most likely going to be -ant or ance. Otherwise, choose -ent or -ence.
b. The other thing to remember is that -ent and -ence are much more common, so if the
first rule doesnt help, the odds are in your favor with this choice.
c. Last, the letter m comes almost exclusively before -ent rather than -ant.
7. -er / -or / -ar
a. The difference here is in the meaning. Basically, -ar means relating to, as angular; -or
means one who does, or state or quality of, as assessor or valor. Third, -er means
anything else, primarily one who does, names of professions, one who has, one who
is associated with, one who lives somewhere, or the comparative form of an

78

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

GREEK
ROOT

DEFINITION

or(a)ornis-, ornithorthost(e)-, osteop(a)ed(o)-

see
bird
straight, right
bone
child

pal(a)e-

old

pan(t)path-, -pathy,
pathopatr(i)pedia-, paideiapent(a)pep(t)-, pepspetrpha(n)pha-, phe(m)-

all, every
suffer, feel; disease

phagpher-, phor-phil(e)phleb(o)phonphot(o)phraphren(o)phyll(o)physi(o)phyt(o)plas(t)-, plasmplatypleg-, plexpodpol(is)polempolyprosprotpseud(o)psych(o)pter(yx)py(o)pyr(o)rhin(o)-

father, family, clan

education
five
digest
rock
show, appear
speak

EXAMPLES
panorama, ephor, diorama, cyclorama
ornithology, ornithine, ornithopter, notornis, ichthyornis, aepyornis
orthodox, orthography, orthopedics, orthoepy, orthotic
osteopath, osteoclasis, osteosis, osteolysis, osteoporosis
orthopaedics, orthopedics, pediatrics, pedagogue, pedantic, propaedeutic,
pedodontics
palaeopterygii, paleontology, palaeosaur, paleosaur, Paleolithic, paleoecology,
paleethnology, paleoanthropic
panorama, pantomime, pandemic, panacea, pandemonium, Pantheon
pathology, sympathy, telepathy, apathy, homeopath, sociopath

patricide, patrician, patriot, patronymic, patriarchy, patrilineal, sympatric

cyclopedia, encyclopedia, hypnopedia
pentagon, pentagram, pentathlon, pentacle, pentadactyl, pentoxide, Pentateuch
pepsin, dyspepsia, peptonic, tripeptide, peptic
petroleum, petrify, petroglyph, petrochemical, petropolitics
phantom, epiphany, phase, emphasis, phantasy
aphasia, phatic, dysphasia, apophasis, prophet, blaspheme, euphemism,
prophecy, prophesy
eat
sarcophagous, geophagy, glossophagine, bibliophagous, xylophagous
bear, go
periphery, pheromone, telpher, semaphore, phosphorescent, amphora, euphoric,
xanthophore
love
philosophy, philharmonic, bibliophile, cinephile, philately, xenophile
vein
phlebotomist, phlebitis, phlebosclerosis, phlebotomy, phlebology
voice, sound
phonetic, homophone, symphonic, telephone, aphonic, euphony, cacophony
light
photograph, photosynthesis, aphotic, telephoto, phototaxis
speak, show
phrase, phraseology, antiphrasis, paraphrase, metaphrase, holophrastic
mind, diaphragm
phrenology, hebephrenia, phrenic, schizophrenia
leaf
chlorophyll, phyllophagous, aphylly, phyllotaxis, xanthophyllic
nature
physical, physics, physiology, geophysical, epiphysis, metaphysics, symphysis
grow
neophyte, epiphytic, osteophyte, phytology, phytotoxic, xerophyte
form, mold
plastic, plasma, hyperplasia, plaster, protoplasm, anaplasia
flat, broad
platypus, platysma, amphiplatyan, platyhelminth, platyrrhiny
paralysis, stroke, to
diplegia, hemiplegia, paraplegic, quadriplegia, apoplexy, cataplexy, plexor,
strike
pleximeter
foot
pseudopod, podium, tripod, dipody, podiatrist, gastropod
city, state
acropolis, metropolis, politician, policy, police, propolis, policlinic
war
polemic, polemist, polemicize
many
polyglot, polygamy, monopoly, duopoly, polymorphic
near, toward, in front of proselytize, prosthetic, prosody, dysprosium, prosthodontics
original, first
prototype, protein, protist, proteinaceous, protoplasm, proton, protozoa
false
pseudonym, pseudoscientific, pseudopod, pseudocoel
mind
psychology, psychosomatic, metempsychosis, psychoanalysis, psychedelic
wing, fin
archaeopteryx, helicopter, coleopterous, pterosaur, apteral, lepidopteran,
pterodactyl
pus
pyogenesis, pyelitis, pyelogram, pyoderma, pyorrhea
fire
pyre, pyromaniac, empyreal, pyrotechnic, antipyretic
nose
rhinitis, rhinoceros, errhine, rhinoplasty, otorhinolaryngology

131

JAPANESE
Japanese, as you will find, is actually one of the easiest languages to spell, as it is an entirely
phonetic language. The vowels are always pronounced the same way, and the language generally
uses only a limited number of consonants.
All the vowel sounds in the chart below should be consistent (i.e. you wont have any vowel
pronounced more than one way depending on the letters around it, like in many other languages)
a
% ah, as in ball
i
% ee, as in feet
u
% oo, as in food
e
% eh, as in bed
o
% oh, as in coat
Diphthongs arent much harder than the basic vowel sounds. For example, in the words aikido,
there are actually four sounds: ah-ee-kee-doh. When these are pronounced a little faster, you get
something that sounds like eye-kee-doh. The same applies to sensei, which is formed from
four sounds: seh-n-seh-ee. Again, when this runs together, you get sen-say.
Note that the letter n is the only consonant which can end a word or syllable. Everything else
will be in combinations with the consonant or consonants preceding a vowel sound. The vowel
sounds, however, as weve seen, can be used together to form other sounds.
Katakana, the Japanese alphabet, contains a limited number of possible syllables. The primary
ones are indicated in boldfaced type. Note the n in the bottom right hand corner of the chart.
a

ka

ga

sa

za

ta

da

na

ha

ba

pa

ma

ra

ki

gi

shi

ji

chi

ji

ni

hi

bi

pi

mi

ri

ku

gu

su

zu

tsu

zu

nu

fu

bu

pu

mu

ru

ke

ge

se

ze

te

de

ne

he

be

pe

me

re

fe

ko

go

so

zo

to

do

no

ho

bo

po

mo

ro

fo

ya

kya

gya

sha

ja

cha

ja

nya

hya

bya

pya

mya

rya

yu

kyu

gyu

shu

ju

chu

ju

nyu

hyu

byu

pyu

myu

ryu

yo

kyo

gyo

sho

jo

cho

jo

nyo

hyo

byo

pyo

myo

ryo

wa

Some Japanese words may vary slightly from these syllables when Anglicized, but for the
most part, this should be all you need to know. (e.g. the spelling of hokku, and the ee sound at
the end of kamikaze, where, technically, there should be an eh sound.)

fa
fi

132

Why Isnt Phonetic Spelled the Way It Sounds?

Japanese words:
aikido
amanori
aucuba
banzai
bonsai
Bushido
chanoyu
daikon
daimio, daimyo
dashi
dojo
enoki
enoki
enokidake
fugu
fusuma
geisha
genro
geta
ginkgo, ginko
gyokuro
haikai
haiku
hara-kiri, hari-kari
heian
heimin
hibachi
hirado ware
hiragana
Hiroshima
hokku
honcho
ikebana
iroha, irofa
issei, Issei
jinriksha, jinrikisha
judo
jujitsu, jujutsu, jiujitsu,
jiujutsu
kabuki
kakemono
kaki
kamikaze
kana
kanji
karaoke
karate

karatsu ware
katakana
Kawaguchi
kawi, kavi
kendo
Kibei
kimono
kiri
kirimon
koan
koban, cobang, kobang
Kobe
koto
kudzu
makimono
matsu
matsu
Matsuoka
medaka
mikado
miso
Nagasaki
netsuke
ninja
Nipponese
Nisei
Nishinomiya
nori
obi
Okinawan
origami
pachinko
rotenone
rumaki, ramaki
sake , saki, sak
samisen, samsien,
shamisen
samurai
sanron
Sansei
sashimi
satori
satsuma
sayonara
sen
senryu
sensei

seppuku
shakuhachi
shiatsu
shiitake
shikken
Shingon
shintai
Shinto
shogaol
shogi
shogun
shoji
sika
soy
sugi
sukiyaki
sumo
surimi
sushi
tanka
tatami
tempura
teriyaki
tofu
tokonoma
torii
tsubo
tsuga
tsunami
Tsushima
tsutsugamushi mite
tycoon
udo
urushi
urushiol
urushiye
Wakayama
yakitori
Yamamai
Yamato
Yamato, Yamato-e
Yayoi
yen
zaibatsu
zaikai
zori