sail

A2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /seɪl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

sale /seːl/

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.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

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

Word family

Forms sailedsails

Derived forms after-sailasailbesailcircumsaildaysailforesailforestaysailgaffsailheadsaillugsailmainsailmizzensail

Common collocations

sail through Verb + preposition/particle

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

Describing Qualities Transportation

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
- Describing Qualities
- Transportation

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sail

Meanings

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