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Sac or sack?

sac is a noun meaning “A bag or pouch inside a plant or animal that typically contains a fluid”; sack is a noun meaning “A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and…”. They sound the same (/sæk/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sack is about 1.7 times as common as sac.

sacorsack

What is the difference between sac and sack?

sacsack
Part of speechnoun, verbnoun, verb
Meaning

A bag or pouch inside a plant or animal that typically contains a fluid

informalTo sacrifice

informalA sacrifice

A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with…

The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English…

To put in a sack or sacks

ExampleKasparov sacked his queen early on in the game to gain a positional advantage against KramnikThe American sack of salt is 215 pounds; the sack of wheat, two bushels. –
Formssacssacks
Pronunciation/sæk//sæk/ /sak/ /sɛk/
In writing4.7 times per million words8.1 times per million words

Sources: sac and sack 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 sac and sack

sac

  1. 1

    noun A bag or pouch inside a plant or animal that typically contains a fluid

  2. 2

    verb informalTo sacrifice

    Kasparov sacked his queen early on in the game to gain a positional advantage against Kramnik

  3. 3

    noun informalA sacrifice

    Kasparov's queen sac early in the game gained him a positional advantage against Kramnik

  4. 4

    noun UKThe privilege, formerly enjoyed by the lord of a manor, of holding courts, trying causes, and imposing fines; now used only in the phrase sac and soc or soc and sac

  5. 5

    noun Acronym of senior aircraftman

  6. 6

    noun Alternative form of Sauk

  7. 7

    noun Initialism of saeculum ante Christum (“era before Christ”)

sack

  1. 1

    noun A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack…

  2. 2

    verb To put in a sack or sacks

    Help me sack the groceries

  3. 3

    noun datedA variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry

  4. 4

    noun datedDated form of sac (“pouch in a plant or animal”)

  5. 5

    verb Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

  6. 6

    noun Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

  7. 7

    noun The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal…

    The American sack of salt is 215 pounds; the sack of wheat, two bushels. –

  8. 8

    verb To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders

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, sac or sack?

sac appears 4.7 times per million words; sack 8.1 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 sac vs sack?

“sac vs sack” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sack vs sac”, “sac or sack”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.

The words