sail

A2 Topic:Maritime & Sailing

US /seɪl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

sale /seɪl/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like sell /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/ Sounds like cell /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/

Freq #4025

Meanings

1

verb
To travel across water in a boat or ship.

The ship will sail to Southampton tomorrow.
2

verb
To control a boat that moves using the wind.

I love sailing, especially on the open sea.
3

noun
A large piece of strong cloth fixed to a boat so the wind can push it along.

They raised the sail and the boat picked up speed.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Multiword verbs with sail

sail through Prepositional verb A2

to complete something successfully with little difficulty

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to travel across water in a... voyage

Word family

Forms sailedsails

Derived forms after-sailasailbesailcircumsaildaysailforesailforestaysailgaffsailheadsaillugsailmainsailmizzensail

Appears in

Phrases (1)

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sail through
to complete something successfully with little difficulty

Verb + preposition/particle

Idioms (1)

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take the wind out of someone's sails
to suddenly weaken a person's confidence, excitement, or determination

Proverbs (1)

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A man without a woman is like a ship without a sail

Etymology

From Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla.

sailen Middle English seġlan Old English *siglijan Proto-West Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Maritime & Sailing Actions & Processes

External links

# sail

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** verb, noun
**IPA (US):** /seɪl/
**Frequency rank:** 4025

## Meanings
1. To travel across water in a boat or ship.
2. To control a boat that moves using the wind.
3. A large piece of strong cloth fixed to a boat so the wind can push it along.

## Examples
- The ship will sail to Southampton tomorrow.
- I love sailing, especially on the open sea.
- They raised the sail and the boat picked up speed.

## Derived Forms
- after-sail
- asail
- besail
- circumsail
- daysail
- foresail
- forestaysail
- gaffsail
- headsail
- lugsail
- mainsail
- mizzensail

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sailen
- Root: seġlan
- Root: *siglijan

## Etymology
From Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla.

## AI Etymology
Sail comes from Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla. Modern senses include to travel across water in a boat or ship. and to control a boat that moves using the wind.. The wider word family includes derivatives such as after-sail, asail, besail, circumsail, daysail, and foresail.

## Topics
- Maritime & Sailing
- Actions & Processes

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sail

Meanings

Verb forms

Multiword verbs with sail

Thesaurus

Appears in

Phrases (1)

Idioms (1)

Proverbs (1)

Etymology

Topics

External links

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