slay

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /sleɪ/ UK /sleɪ/ See IPA manual

Homophones

sleigh /sleɪ/

Meanings

1

verb
to kill violently, especially in great numbers

The hero set out to slay the dragon terrorizing the village.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to kill violently,... kill murder slaughter massacre dispatch destroy

Opposites

spare resurrect revive

Word family

Derived forms slayerslaying

Related forms slaughter sleight

Simplified etymology

Slay is an Old English word related to slaughter, which was borrowed in the Middle English period from Old Norse slátr, “butcher’s meat.”

Etymology

From Old English slean ('to strike, slay'), from Proto-Germanic *slahaną ('to strike'), of disputed further origin.

slean Old English *slahaną Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# slay

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

## Meanings
1. to kill violently, especially in great numbers

## Examples
- The hero set out to slay the dragon terrorizing the village.

## Synonyms
- kill
- murder
- slaughter
- massacre
- dispatch
- destroy

## Antonyms
- spare
- resurrect
- revive

## Derived Forms
- slayer
- slaying

## Related Forms
- slaughter
- sleight

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: slean
- Root: *slahaną

## Etymology
From Old English slean ('to strike, slay'), from Proto-Germanic *slahaną ('to strike'), of disputed further origin.

## AI Etymology
Slay comes from Old English slean ('to strike, slay'), from Proto-Germanic *slahaną ('to strike'), of disputed further origin. The historical chain includes Old English slean and Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Older glosses in the chain include "to strike, slay" and "to strike", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, slay is best read as borrowing, yielding an English verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb, with the sense "to kill violently, especially in great numbers". English derivatives include slayer and slaying; related forms include slaughter and sleight. The result is an English verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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