sailing
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Motion across a body of water in a craft powered by the wind, as a sport or otherwise.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
saylingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈseɪlɪŋ
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
Motion across a body of water in a craft powered by the wind, as a sport or otherwise
Navigation; the skill needed to operate and navigate a vessel
The departure of a vessel from a port
The time of departure from a port
countable
A scheduled voyage by a ferry or ship.
adjective
Travelling by ship.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Motion across a body of water in a craft powered by the wind, as a sport or otherwise
Used this way, sailing is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sailing
- “They enjoy sailing their boat on the lake every summer weekend.”
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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.