sac

C2+ Topic:Science & Research

US /sæk/ UK /sæk/ See IPA manual

Homophones

sack /ˈsæk/ sacque /sæk/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like sock /æ/ vs /ɑ/ Sounds like sec /ɛ/ vs /æ/

Meanings

1

noun
a pouch or bag-like cavity in an organism, often holding fluid

The spider stores venom in a small sac behind its fangs.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a pouch or bag-like cavity... pouch bag cavity pocket vesiclecyst

Word family

Forms sacculated

Derived forms saccularsacculate

Related forms sacculesacksatchel

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

tear sac
a small pouch near the inner corner of the eye that collects tears for drainage

Noun + noun

Etymology

From French sac ('bag') or directly from Latin saccus ('bag, sack'), from Ancient Greek sákkos, ultimately of Semitic origin (compare Hebrew śaq).

saccus Latin sákkos Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Science & Research

External links

# sac

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /sæk/
**IPA (UK):** /sæk/

## Meanings
1. a pouch or bag-like cavity in an organism, often holding fluid

## Examples
- The spider stores venom in a small sac behind its fangs.

## Synonyms
- pouch
- bag
- cavity
- pocket
- vesicle
- cyst

## Derived Forms
- saccular
- sacculate

## Related Forms
- saccule
- sack
- satchel

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: saccus
- Root: sákkos

## Etymology
From French sac ('bag') or directly from Latin saccus ('bag, sack'), from Ancient Greek sákkos, ultimately of Semitic origin (compare Hebrew śaq).

## AI Etymology
Sac comes from French sac ('bag') or directly from Latin saccus ('bag, sack'), from Ancient Greek sákkos, ultimately of Semitic origin (compare Hebrew śaq). The historical chain includes Latin saccus and Ancient Greek sákkos. Older glosses in the chain include "bag" and "bag, sack", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, sac is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a pouch or bag-like cavity in an organism, often holding fluid". English derivatives include saccular and sacculate; related forms include saccule, sack, and satchel. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Science & Research

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