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PlainSpell

saw

UK /sɔː/noun, verb

saw is spelled S-A-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, saw means “Such a tool with a toothed blade” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of saw is saws.

How many letters and syllables are in saw?

Letters3: S-A-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing219 times per million words; the 460th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
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 saw?

Saw appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th 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 saw?

  • UK /sɔː/
  • British /soː/
  • /sɑ/

Saw 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-saw.wav, En-us-saw.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Knabrupt-saw.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with saw

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

saw vs sore0 B

Sounds like: soar, sore (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

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

What rhymes with saw?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as saw from its last stressed vowel (/ɔ/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: was.

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 saw

  • saws plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sawing participle, present
  • sawed past, participle
  • sawn participle, past

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

What does saw mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Such a tool with a toothed blade.

    Meronyms: sawtooth < sawblade

  2. 2

    Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth.

  3. 3

    A musical saw.

  4. 4

    A sawtooth wave.

  5. 5

    The situation where two partners agree to trump a suit alternately, playing that suit to each other for the express purpose.

  6. 6

    obsoleteSomething spoken; speech, discourse.

  7. 7

    archaicA saying or proverb.

    old saw

  8. 8

    obsoleteOpinion, idea, belief.

    by thy saw

  9. 9

    obsoleteProposal, suggestion; possibility.

  10. 10

    obsoleteDictate; command; decree.

verb

  1. 1

    To cut (something) with a saw.

  2. 2

    To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.

  3. 3

    To be cut with a saw.

    The timber saws smoothly.

  4. 4

    To form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw.

    to saw boards or planks (i.e. to saw logs or timber into boards or planks)

  5. 5

    simple past of see (a form of see)

  6. 6

    colloquialnonstandardpast participle of see (a form of see)

interjection

as SAW
  1. 1

    proscribedصَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ (ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wa-sallama, “peace be upon him”)

noun

as SAW
  1. 1

    USInitialism of squad automatic weapon or initialism of section automatic weapon, a kind of light machine gun.

  2. 2

    Initialism of surface acoustic wave.

  3. 3

    Acronym of solar array wing

noun

as Saw
  1. 1

    slangA Bahamian.

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

Saw in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchscie (tool), scier (cut with a saw), proverbe (saying or proverb)
GermanSäge (tool), sägen (cut with a saw), Spruch, Sprichwort (saying or proverb)
Portugueseserra, serrote (tool), serrar (cut with a saw), provérbio (saying or proverb)
Spanishsierra (tool), serrar (cut with a saw), proverbio, refrán, dicho (saying or proverb)

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 saw come from?

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).

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

What to look up after saw