SAS
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Special Air Service |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Military, Units & Measurements, Business & Finance, Technology & Computing |
SAS has five meanings. The most common are Special Air Service (military unit and organization) and Side-Angle-Side (congruence) (math); it can also stand for Société par actions simplifiée (simplified joint-stock company), Serial Attached SCSI and Statistical Analysis System.
Meanings of SAS at a glance
| # | SAS stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Special Air Service | Military › Military Unit and Organization |
| 2 | Side-Angle-Side (congruence) | Units & Measurements › Math |
| 3 | Société par actions simplifiée (simplified joint-stock company) | Business & Finance › Company Type |
| 4 | Serial Attached SCSI | Technology & Computing › Computer Hardware |
| 5 | Statistical Analysis System | Technology & Computing › Data & Database |
1. Special Air Service
Military · Military Unit and Organization Abbreviations
British Army special forces regiment, formed in 1941, that conducts counterterrorism, hostage rescue, special reconnaissance and raids. Its motto is "Who Dares Wins," and the regular regiment, 22 SAS, is based near Hereford.
Example: SAS troopers stormed the building and freed the hostages within minutes.
David Stirling founded the unit in North Africa during the Second World War. The regiment became famous after storming the Iranian Embassy in London during the 1980 siege. Australia and New Zealand have their own SAS regiments, and the name also belongs to Scandinavian Airlines and a statistics software company.
2. Side-Angle-Side (congruence)
Units & Measurements · Math Abbreviations
Congruence test for triangles that compares two sides and the angle between them; the angle must be the included one. If those three parts match, the triangles are congruent.
Example: With AB = DE, angle B = angle E and BC = EF, the triangles are congruent by SAS.
Euclid proved it as Book I, Proposition 4, while David Hilbert's modern axioms for geometry take it as an axiom. The related side-side-angle condition does not guarantee congruence, the "ambiguous case" familiar from the law of sines. SAS similarity uses two proportional sides and the included angle.
3. Société par actions simplifiée (simplified joint-stock company)
Business & Finance · Company Type Abbreviations
Flexible French corporate form whose shareholders can largely set governance rules in the company's bylaws, popular with startups, joint ventures and subsidiaries. Shareholders' liability is limited to their contributions, and there is no meaningful minimum share capital.
Example: The startup incorporated as an SAS so it could create preferred shares for its venture investors.
Created in 1994 and liberalized in 1999 and 2008, the SAS and its one-shareholder version, the SASU, now account for most new French company registrations. An SAS must have a president, but other governance bodies are optional. Colombia adopted a similar form, the S.A.S., in 2008. SAS is also the name of the Scandinavian airline.
4. Serial Attached SCSI
Technology & Computing · Computer Hardware Abbreviations
Enterprise storage interface that carries SCSI commands over serial point-to-point links, used for server and storage-array drives. Current versions run at 12 and 22.5 Gbit/s, and drives often have dual ports so two controllers can reach them.
Example: Our storage array uses SAS drives, with redundant controllers attached to both ports on each disk.
SAS appeared in 2004 as the successor to parallel SCSI. SAS controllers accept SATA drives, but SATA controllers cannot run SAS drives, whose connector has a bridge that blocks them. SAS expanders let a single controller reach hundreds of disks in disk shelves. Outside storage, SAS is a statistics software company and the British Special Air Service.
5. Statistical Analysis System
Technology & Computing · Data & Database Abbreviations
A commercial software suite for statistics, data management and analytics, long standard in pharmaceutical trials, banking, insurance and government. Users write programs in the SAS language of DATA steps and PROC procedures.
Example: The clinical trial datasets were analyzed in SAS and submitted as transport files.
Developed at North Carolina State University from 1966 and commercialized by SAS Institute, founded in 1976 in Cary, North Carolina; the company now treats SAS as a name rather than an expansion. Open-source R and Python have taken much of its academic and startup market. In storage hardware SAS means Serial Attached SCSI.
Related abbreviations
More military unit and organization abbreviations
- RN – Royal Navy
- ROTC – Reserve Officers' Training Corps
- SAC – Strategic Air Command
- SACEUR – Supreme Allied Commander Europe
- SBS – Special Boat Service
- SEAC – Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman
- SEAL – Sea, Air and Land (Navy SEAL)
- SF – Special Forces (US Army)
See all 126 military unit and organization abbreviations →