sails
noun · verb
Form of sail , plural of sail.
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:
saylzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈseɪlz
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
plural of sail
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.
plural of sail
The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.
plural of sail
A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.
plural of sail
The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.
verb
third-person singular of sail
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.
third-person singular of sail
Travel on water propelled by wind
third-person singular of sail
To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
third-person singular of sail
To set sail; to begin a voyage.
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, sails 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.
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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.