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# sell

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** verb, noun
**IPA (US):** /sɛl/
**Frequency rank:** 749

## Meanings
1. to give something to someone in exchange for money
2. to be bought by people; to be available for a price
3. to persuade someone to accept or believe an idea
4. the act of persuading someone to buy something

## Examples
- She sold her old car very quickly.
- These books sell like hot cakes.
- I'm having trouble selling the plan to my boss.
- It was a hard sell, but the customer finally agreed.

## Synonyms
- cheap
- flog
- hawk
- monger
- peddle
- retail
- vend

## Antonyms
- barter
- buy

## Derived Forms
- backsell
- cross-sell
- hand-sell
- hard-sell
- mis-sell
- missell
- no-sell
- onsell
- outsell
- oversell
- presell
- resell

## Related Forms
- sale

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *selh₁-
- Root: sellen
- Root: sellan
- Root: *salljan
- Root: *saljaną

## Etymology
From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Cognates Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Faroese, Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan, “to pay tribute, make an offer”).

## AI Etymology
Sell is from Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Cognates Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Faroese, Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan, “to pay tribute, make an offer”). Important forms in the word's history include Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-, Middle English sellen, Old English sellan, Proto-West Germanic *salljan, Proto-Germanic *saljaną. In current use it includes senses such as to give something to someone in exchange for money and to be bought by people; to be available for a price.

## Topics
- Money & Finance

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