Below are definitions and photographic illustrations of architectural term beginning with the letter "S".
| Saddle - A roof ridge that connects two roof segments with higher elevations. |
| Saddle Coping - A coping that slopes on both sides to form a center ridge. |
| Sailor - A brick or block laid vertically with its longest wide face facing out. |
| Sawtooth roof - A roof that consists of several smaller roofs, usually with a triangular cross-section, that run parallel to each other. The smaller roofs look like the teeth of a saw when viewed on edge, hence the name. Often, at least one side of each of the smaller roofs is composed of glass or another translucent material for lighting purposes. |
| Scupper - An opening in the side of a building used for draining rainwater. |
| Segmental Arch - An abbreviated arch, whose end voissoirs are noticeably far away from being vertical. |
| Semi-Dome - A partial dome built against a vertical wall. |
| Sgraffito - A decoration created by scratching off a top layer of paint or material to reveal a contrasting layer below. |
| Shaft - The main, central part of a pier or column between the base and the capital. |
| Shed Dormer - A dormer with a shed roof. |
| Shed roof - A roof that only has one slope. |
| Shiner - A brick or block laid horizontally on its longest edge with the wide face exposed. |
| Shingle - A thin, flat piece of asphalt, wood, metal, or slate used to cover the walls or roof of a building in overlapping rows. |
| Ship's Ladder - A steep fixed stepladder with attached handrails. |
| Shoe - The base of a downspout, usually curved to direct rainwater away from the building's wall. |
| Shot-sawn - A stone face with a coarse, rippled finish obtained by using a mixture of water, abrasive, and steel shot during the sawing process. |
| Sidelight - A window at the side of a door or other window. |
| Siding - A weatherproof material such as boards, vinyl, shingles, or sheet metal covering an exterior wall of a building. |
| Skewback - A piece of masonry with a tilting face cut into it against which a segmental arch rests. |
| Skylight - A glassed-in roof opening used for lighting. |
| Soldier - A brick or block laid vertically with its longest narrow edge facing out. |
| Soldier Course - A continous row of soldier bricks or blocks. |
| Solid Block Flooring - A floor made from solid wood blocks glued down so their grain faces up. Usually used in very high traffic areas. |
| Spalling - Concrete or masonry that is chipping or scaling because of freeze/thaw cycles and/or the overuse of de-icing salts. |
| Spandrel - The triangular panel between two arches or between an arch and an adjoining wall. This area usually has some sort of ornamentation. |
| Splash Block - A precast concrete block with a splayed surface that disperses rainwater from a downspout so it doesn't erode the surrounding soil. |
| Splayed Coping - A coping that slopes in only one direction. |
| Spring - The point at which an arch rises from its support. |
| Springer - The first voussoir of an arch, which rests on an impost. |
| Stack Bond - A masonry pattern consisting of bricks or blocks that are aligned vertically. |
| Stilted Arch - An arch whose imposts aren't visually or structurally separated from its archivolts. |
| Stoop - A raised platform with steps at a building's entrance. |
| Stretcher - A brick or block laid horizontally in a wall with its longest edge facing out. |
| Stretching Course - A row of stretcher bricks. |
| Sunk Relief - Carved relief where the highest point of the sculpture is no higher than the flat surface it is carved into. |
| Surbased Arch - An arch with a rise that is less than half of its width. |
| Swirl Finish - A decorative plaster or concrete finish created by running a trowel over the wet surface with overlapping circular strokes. |
