sale
/seːl/noun
sale is spelled S-A-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 98 times per million words in written English, the 1,112th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sale vs sell” about 9,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, sale means “An exchange of goods or services for currency or credit” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sale is sales.
How many letters and syllables are in sale?
| Letters | 4: S-A-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 98 times per million words; the 1,112th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 sale?
Sale appears 98 times per million words in written English, the 1,112th 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 sale?
- /seːl/
- /seɪl/
Sale 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-sale.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sale
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sale?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sale.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: seal, lase.
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 sale
- sales plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sale mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An exchange of goods or services for currency or credit.
He celebrated after the sale of company.
- 2
Ellipsis of discount sale (“the sale of goods at reduced prices”).
They are having a clearance sale: 50% off.
- 3
The act of putting up for auction to the highest bidder.
- 4
obsoleteA hall.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vente , soldes, liquidation, promotion , vente aux enchères |
| German | Verkauf , Sonderangebote haben, im Sonderangebot haben, Angebote haben, im Angebot haben, Abverkauf |
| Portuguese | venda , promoção , leilão |
| Spanish | venta , liquidación, rebaja, rebajas, sale |
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 sale come from?
From Middle English sale, from Old English sala (“act of selling, sale”), from Old Norse sala (“sale”), from Proto-Germanic *salō (“delivery”), from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁- (“to grab”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).