sail

1. 1.

   a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel

   Synonymscanvascanvasssheet

   Broaderpiece of cloth

   Narrowerballoon sailcrossjackfore-and-aft sailforesailheadsailmainsailmain-topsailpress of sailroyalsave-all

   Part ofsailing vessel

   Partsreef
2. 2.

   an ocean trip taken for pleasure

   Synonymscruise

   Broaderocean trip
3. 3.

   any structure that resembles a sail

   Broaderstructure

Other forms of sail

plural

sails·

past tense

sailed·

present participle

sailing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about sail

What does sail mean?

sail means "traverse or travel on (a body of water)". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sail?

sail has 1 syllable: sail. In IPA it is /ˈseɪl/.

What is another word for sail?

Close synonyms include sweep, voyage, navigate, canvas, canvass. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sail a common word?

sail is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with sail?

4 words rhyme with sail. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.