Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • abbreviation self-propelled
  • abbreviation shore patrol
  • abbreviation single pole
  • abbreviation specialist
  • abbreviation submarine patrol

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An abbreviation of Spanish.
  • An abbreviation: in pharmacy, of spiritus, spirit;
  • in botany, of species, specimen;
  • in zoology, of species only; when two or more species are meant, spp. is used.
  • An abbreviation of Spain.
  • noun An abbreviation of Society for the Prevention of Crime.
  • An abbreviation of Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
  • An abbreviation of short particular meter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • initialism Starting price, the quoted odds in horse racing.
  • initialism Selling price.
  • initialism US, military, navy Shore patrol.
  • initialism law enforcement State police
  • initialism Slow play.
  • initialism computing service pack.
  • initialism law enforcement superintendent
  • initialism Suppressive person (someone who speaks critically of Scientology)
  • abbreviation São Paulo, a state of Brazil.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word SP.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • BBC has SP being an Ex Scientologist.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23273109

    "If you imagine 40-50 Scientologists posting on the internet every few days, we'll just run the SP's ex-members right off the system."

    July 19, 2013

  • Back in the days when off track bookmakers were illegal in Australia, an SP bookie or often just SP was a bookmaker who would take bets and then pay them out (if necessary) at the starting price, ie. the odds that were offered by on-track bookmakers at the time the event started. SP bookies were relatively common as police had better things to do than hunt down the weedy guy in the corner of the pub with a big satchel full of money. Larger operations were known to have people peering over the racecourse fence with binoculars to read the odds boards in the betting ring and these numbers would get phoned in to the SP...to the nearest payphone of course! Those were the days.

    July 13, 2018