Urgent call

The answer

SOS

3 letters. See every clue for this answer on the SOS answer page.

Used 44 times across 18 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 1997. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• PLEA (3 uses in xd)
• APB (2 uses in xd)
• MAYDAY (1 uses in xd)

Other clues for SOS

Every other clue in this collection answered by SOS, most used first.

• "Mayday!" - used 228 times, most recently in 2026
• Distress signal - used 182 times, most recently in 2026
• Call for help - used 104 times, most recently in 2026
• Distress call - used 81 times, most recently in 2026
• Sinking signal - used 72 times, most recently in 2026
• Brillo rival - used 57 times, most recently in 2026
• Sea plea - used 49 times, most recently in 2026
• Plea at sea - used 44 times, most recently in 2026
• Scouring pad brand - used 41 times, most recently in 2026
• "Send help!" - used 39 times, most recently in 2026
• Ship's distress signal - used 30 times, most recently in 2026
• Brillo alternative - used 29 times, most recently in 2026
• Shipwreck signal - used 28 times, most recently in 2026

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Cattle call - MOO, used 245 times
• Call ___ day - ITA, used 193 times
• Tennis call - LET, used 80 times
• Court call - LET, used 75 times
• Dove's call - COO, used 72 times
• Discoverer's call - OHO, used 63 times

Search the clue collection

Search by clue words or by answer, or type a pattern with the letters you have and a blank for each square you do not know. The characters _ ? . and - all work as blanks.