2nd-order rate constants have been measured spectrophotometrically for the reactions of 4-nitrophenyl benzoate (1), S-4-nitrophenyl thiobenzoate (2) and 4-nitrophenyl thionbenzoate (3) with alkoxides, aryloxides and thioaryloxides in absolute ethanol at 25.0 ${pm}0.1$${circ}C$. The substitution of O by polarizable S in the leaving group has little affected the reactivity of 2 toward the charge localized species (eg. $EtO^-$ and $CF_3CH_2O^-$), while the effect of the similar replacement in the carbonyl group has led to a decrease in reactivity by a factor of 10. However, the reactivity of these esters toward charge delocalized aryloxides has been found to be in the order $1<3{le}2$. The effect of replaced sulfur atom on reactivity becomes more significant for the reaction with polarizable thioaryloxides, i.e. the reactivity increases in the order $1<2{ll}3$. The difference in reactivity for the present system is attributed to a polarizability effect.