slave
/sleɪv/noun, verb
slave is spelled S-L-A-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, slave means “A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of slave is slaves.
How many letters and syllables are in slave?
| Letters | 5: S-L-A-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,224th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is slave?
Slave appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,224th 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 slave?
- /sleɪv/
Slave 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-slave.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with slave?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as slave.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: salve, selva.
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 slave
- slaves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- slaving participle, present
- slaved participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does slave mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
- 2
A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
- 3
An abject person.
- 4
One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition
- 5
A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
- 6
A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
- 7
A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).
verb
- 1
To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
- 2
To work hard.
I was slaving all day over a hot stove.
- 3
To place a device under the control of another.
to slave a hard disk
noun
- 1
Alternative form of Slavey.
- 2
obsoleteObsolete form of Slav.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of Slavey.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Slave in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | esclave, serf, serve |
| German | Sklave, Sklavin |
| Portuguese | escravo, escrava , mourejar |
| Spanish | esclavo, esclava |
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.