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sax

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sax¹

  • /sæks/

Sounds like sacks, Sacks, Sachs, Sax · Rhymes with -æks

Where it comes from

From Middle English sax, sex, from Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”), from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“stone chip, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Doublet of seax and zax.

noun saxes

  1. alternative Alternative spelling of zax
  2. obsolete A knife or sword; a dagger about 50 cm (20 inches) in length.
  3. historical An early medieval type of machete common with the Germanic peoples.

verb saxes · saxing · saxed

  1. UK, dialectal, transitive To cut or slash with a sharp instrument; incise; scarify.

sax²

  • /sæks/

Sounds like sacks, Sacks, Sachs, Sax · Rhymes with -æks

Where it comes from

Clipping of saxophone. Distantly related to etymology 1 above, because the “Sax” surname is a cognate.

noun saxes

  1. abbreviation, clipping Clipping of saxophone

verb saxes · saxing · saxed

  1. To play the saxophone

sax³

  • /sæks/

Sounds like sacks, Sacks, Sachs, Sax · Rhymes with -æks

Where it comes from

Clipping of saxe blue, from the name of the region of Saxony.

noun saxes

  1. a shade of colour similar to sky blue

SAX⁴

proper noun

  1. Internet, abbreviation, acronym Acronym of Simple API for XML

Sax⁵

Where it comes from

Derived from German Sachs, from Sachse, from Middle High German Sahse, from Old High German Sahso, from Proto-West Germanic *Sahsō (“Saxon”), from *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą, from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.

proper noun Saxes

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: saxophone, melody, tenor, woodwind, seax, scramasax, sledge, about-sledge, broadaxe, sledge hammer, aboutsledge, saxboard, scramaseax, sledgehammer, moot-axe, slabber

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Cite this
MLA

"sax." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sax. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sax. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sax

Chicago

"sax." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sax.

BibTeX
@misc{sax_2026,
  title = {sax},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sax},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}