sail
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
saylIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈseɪl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
nautical
A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
uncountable
The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.
A tower-like structure found on the dorsal (topside) surface of submarines.
The blade of a windmill.
The floating organ of siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-of-war.
Acronym of snow avalanche impact landform.
verb
To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.
To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.
To move briskly and gracefully through the air.
intransitive
To move briskly but sedately.
To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
intransitive
To set sail; to begin a voyage.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
Used this way, sail is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a nautical use: it is standard at sea and largely unfamiliar ashore.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sail
- “The QE2 will sail to Southampton tomorrow.”verb
- “We sailed the Atlantic.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The work of a sailor.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Any member of a ship's crew.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Succeed at easily.
A small sailing vessel.
The ship's officer in charge of navigation.
A race between crews of people in yachts.
A vessel that is powered by the wind.
A vessel that is powered by the wind.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A small sailing vessel.
A triangular fore-and-aft sail with its foot along the gaff and its luff on the topmast.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.