# sap

> English word · Noun · IPA /sæp/ · frequency rank #13,054

## Definitions
1. The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
2. The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
3. Any juice.
4. Vitality.
5. A naive person; a simpleton.

## Etymology
From Middle English sap, from Old English sæp (“juice, sap”), from Proto-West Germanic *sap (“sap, juice”) (compare Dutch sap, German Saft, Icelandic safi), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap- (“to taste”) (compare Welsh syb-wydd (“fir”), Latin sapa (“must, new wine”), Russian со́пли (sópli, “snivel”), Old Armenian համ (ham, “taste”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌-𐬱𐬁𐬞𐬀 (vi-šāpa, “having poisonous juices”), Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”)). More at sage.
sap (“naive person”) is a clipping of sapskull (literally “person with sap in their skull”).

## Easily confused with
- **so** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-so)
- **se** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-se)
- **SC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sc)
- **SI** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-si)
- **SS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-ss)
- **SP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sp)
- **su** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-su)
- **SD** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sd)
- **sf** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sf)
- **sh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sh)
- **SM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sm)
- **SB** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sb)
- **SW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sw)
- **SL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sl)
- **SG** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sg)
- **SK** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sk)
- **SV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sv)
- **SJ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sj)
- **Sy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-sy)
- **she** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sap-vs-she)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sap