sail

CEFRA2

/seɪl/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To travel across water in a boat or ship.

  2. 02

    noun

    A sheet of material that catches wind to move a boat.

Examples

  • The sail tightened in the strong wind.

  • We began to sail in the direction of the port.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • [seɪɫ]

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.

  2. The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.

More examples

In context

  • We watched the white sail disappear over the horizon.

  • Take in sail: a storm is coming.

  • Let's go for a sail.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After raising the canvas and filling it with wind, the ship will blank to the next island.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.