Abstract Nucleophilic substitution reactions of cycloalkylmethyl arenesulfonates (C m H 2n− 1 CH 2 OSO 2 C 6 H 4 Z) with anilines (XC 6 H 4 NH 2) in methanol at 65.0 C were studied. The reactivity order (n= 4> 6> 7> 5) reflects largely the order of steric effect of the ring size (SEs term) except for n= 5, which exhibits the least reactivity. This reversal of the order for n= 5 is considered to result from large rate retardation due to polar effect of the ρ* σ* term. ...