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PlainSpell

sail

/seɪl/noun, verb

sail is spelled S-A-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sail means “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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sail is sails.

How many letters and syllables are in sail?

Letters4: S-A-I-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing10 times per million words; the 7,009th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sail?

Sail appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sail?

  • /seɪl/
  • [seɪɫ]
  • /seɪ.əl/

Sail has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sail

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

sail vs sale0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with sail?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sail.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lias, sial.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sail

  • sails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sailing participle, present
  • sailed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sail mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 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.

  2. 2

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

    Take in sail: a storm is coming.

  3. 3

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

  4. 4

    A trip in a boat, especially a sailboat.

    Let's go for a sail.

  5. 5

    datedA sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft.

    Twenty sail were in sight.

  6. 6

    The conning tower of a submarine.

  7. 7

    The blade of a windmill.

  8. 8

    A tower-like structure found on the dorsal (topside) surface of submarines.

verb

  1. 1

    To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.

  2. 2

    To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.

  3. 3

    To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.

  4. 4

    To set sail; to begin a voyage.

    We sail for Australia tomorrow.

  5. 5

    To move briskly and gracefully through the air.

  6. 6

    To move briskly but sedately.

    The duchess sailed haughtily out of the room.

  7. 7

    To deal out (cards) from a distance by impelling them across a surface.

noun

as SAIL
  1. 1

    Acronym of snow avalanche impact landform.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvoile (a piece of fabric attached to a boat), balade en mer, balade en voilier (a trip in a boat), aile (the blade of a windmill), kiosque (a tower-like structure found on the topside of…), voguer (to ride in a boat, especially sailboat)
GermanSegel (a piece of fabric attached to a boat), Törn (a trip in a boat), Windmühlenflügel (the blade of a windmill), Turm (a tower-like structure found on the topside of…), segeln (to ride in a boat, especially sailboat), gleiten (to move briskly and gracefully through the air)
Portuguesevela (a piece of fabric attached to a boat), velejada (a trip in a boat), pá (the blade of a windmill), velejar (to ride in a boat, especially sailboat), deslizar (to move briskly and gracefully through the air), crista (floating organ of siphonophores)
Spanishvela, candonga (a piece of fabric attached to a boat), aspa, álabe (the blade of a windmill), navegar, singlar (to ride in a boat, especially sailboat)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sail come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sail