Saber or sabre?
In American English write saber; in British and Commonwealth English, sabre. saber is a noun meaning “US standard spelling of sabre”; sabre is a noun meaning “A light sword with a curved blade, sharp along the front edge, part of the back…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) saber is about as common as sabre.
What is the difference between saber and sabre?
| saber | sabre | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | USUS standard spelling of sabre Clipping of lightsaber | CanadaUKA light sword with a curved blade, sharp along the front edge, part of the back edge, and at the point CanadaUKA modern fencing sword modeled after the sabre CanadaUKTo strike or kill with a sabre |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | sabers | sabres |
| Pronunciation | /ˈseɪ.bɚ/ /ˈseɪ.bə/ | /ˈseɪ.bə/ /ˈseɪ.bɚ/ |
| Region | US | Canada, UK |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words | 1.0 times per million words |
Sources: saber and sabre in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of saber and sabre
saber
- 1
USUS standard spelling of sabre
- 2
USUS standard spelling of sabre
- 3
Clipping of lightsaber
sabre
- 1
CanadaUKA light sword with a curved blade, sharp along the front edge, part of the back edge, and at the point
- 2
CanadaUKTo strike or kill with a sabre
- 3
CanadaUKA modern fencing sword modeled after the sabre
- 4
CanadaUKTo open (a bottle) via sabrage
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, saber or sabre?
saber appears 1.5 times per million words; sabre 1.0 times per million words.
saber 1.5 times per million wordssabre 1.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search saber vs sabre?
“saber vs sabre” is searched about 1,000 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sabre vs saber”, “saber or sabre”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.