say
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sā
ipa: /seɪ/
ipa: [seː]
ipa: /seɪ/
ipa: [sɛj]
ipa: /seɪ/
enpr: sā
ipa: /seɪ/
ipa: [seː]
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: says
form: saying
form: said
form: said
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: say
form: say
form: said
form: say
form: sayest
form: said
form: saidst
form: says
form: sayeth
form: saith
form: said
form: say
form: said
form: say
form: said
form: say
form: -
form: saying
form: said
form: saie
form: saye
form: seye
form: thay
form: zay
Etymology: From Middle English seyen, seien, seggen, from Old English seċġan (“to say, speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *saggjan, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną (“to say”), from Proto-Indo-European *sokʷ-h₁-yé-, a suffixed o-grade form of *sekʷ- (“to tell, talk”).
Cognate with North Frisian sai, seede, sii (“to say”), West Frisian sizze (“to say”), Dutch zeggen (“to say”), German sagen (“to say”), Low German seggen (“to say, tell”), Luxembourgish soen (“to say”), Danish sige (“to say”), Faroese siga (“to say”), Icelandic segja (“to say”), Jamtish segi (“to say”), Norwegian Bokmål si (“to say”), Norwegian Nynorsk segja, seia, seie (“to say, tell”), Swedish säga (“to say”), Yiddish זאָגן (zogn, “to say; to tell”).
The adverb and interjection are from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: Please say your name slowly and clearly.
glosses: To pronounce.
examples: text: Martha, will you say the Pledge of Allegiance?
text: Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 53-54:
glosses: To recite.
examples: text: He said he would be here tomorrow.
text: No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:
text: She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: ‘All right,’ said Jessamy. ‘I say, Miss Brindle said she’d think about you coming to see the house some time. I said I was sure you weren’t the stone throwing kind, not at windows, I mean.’
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 95:
text: I want to say I’m sorry for yesterday. — It’s okay, Anna.
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
glosses: To tell, either verbally or in writing.
examples: text: The sign says it’s 50 kilometres to Paris.
text: What time does it say on the clock?
glosses: To indicate in a written form.
examples: text: They say "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", which means "behave as those around you do."
text: They say that Hope is happiness; But genuine Love must prize the past.
ref: 1815, George Gordon Byron, “They say that Hope is happiness”, in The Hebrew Melodies:
text: It is said, a bargain cannot be set aside upon inadequacy only.
ref: 1819, Great Britain Court of Chancery, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, page 8:
text: It’s said that fifteen wagon loads of ready-made clothes for the Virginia troops came to, and stay in, town to-night.
ref: 1841, Christopher Marshall, The Knickerbocker (New-York Monthly Magazine), page 379:
glosses: To have a common expression; used in singular passive voice or plural active voice to indicate a rumor or well-known fact.
examples: text: A holiday somewhere warm – Florida, say – would be nice.
text: Say he refuses. What do we do then?
text: Say your family is starving and you don't have any money, is it okay to steal some food?
text: I've followed Selina down the strip, when we're shopping, say, and she strolls on ahead, wearing sawn-off jeans and a wash-withered T-shirt[…]
ref: 1984, Martin Amis, Money: a suicide note:
glosses: Suppose, assume; used to mark an example, supposition or hypothesis.
examples: text: You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 195:
text: To this argument we shall soon have said; for what concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household privacies?
ref: 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 63:
glosses: To speak; to express an opinion; to make answer; to reply.
examples: text: 'My fifty pounds says three months after the invasion there'll be a free press in Iraq, and unmonitored internet access too.'
ref: 2005, Ian McEwan, Saturday, page 192:
topics: business
finance
money
glosses: To bet as a wager on an outcome; by extension, used to express belief in an outcome by the speaker.
raw_tags: of a possession
Synonyms: word: blather
word: dictate
word: gab
word: quethe
word: report
word: say
word: speak
word: state
word: tell
word: utter
word: verbalize
word: voice
word: yak
Hypernyms: word: communicate
word: express
word: talk
Hyponyms: word: add
word: affirm
word: allege
word: announce
word: answer
word: argue
word: assert
word: avow
word: chant
word: claim
word: complain
word: conjecture
word: convey
word: criticize
word: declare
word: decree
word: deliver
word: describe
word: disclose
word: divulge
word: drone
word: echo
word: enounce
word: estimate
word: exclaim
word: explain
word: guess
word: hiss
word: imply
word: indicate
word: inform
word: instruct
word: judge
word: maintain
word: mention
word: missay
word: orate
word: prescribe
word: profer
word: pronounce
word: question
word: quote
word: ramble
word: recite
word: rehearse
word: reiterate
word: relate
word: remark
word: render
word: repeat
word: reply
word: respond
word: restate
word: reveal
word: rumor
word: scoff
word: shout
word: signify
word: sing
word: specify
word: spiel
word: suggest
word: whisper
Derived terms: and so say all of us
as I was saying
as the saying goes
as they say
as who should say
before you can say Jack Robinson
before you can say knife
besay
can we say
dare-say
dare say
dare-saying
dessay
do as I say and not as I do
don't say gay
doomsaying
do you know what I'm saying
easy for you to say
enough said
final say
foresay
forsay
gainsay
go without saying
have a say
have to say for oneself
hear what I'm saying
how do you say … in English
how say you
how you say
I'd say
if I do say so myself
if I may say so
if I say so myself
if you don't mind me saying
if you say so
if you see something, say something
I hear you say
I'll say
I must say
I said what I said
I say
it doesn't matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right
it goes without saying
it's not what you say but how you say it
just saying
just say no
know what I'm saying
let's not and say we did
let's say
mean to say
nay-say
need I say more
needless to say
never-say-die
never say die
never say never
not to say
or should I say
oversay
please say that again
sad to say
said no one ever
said the thing
saith
say aah
say again
say boo
say boo to a goose
say bo to a goose
say cheese
sayer
sayeth
say goodbye
say grace
say hello to my little friend
saying
say it all
say la vee
say less
say no
say no more
say none
say nothing
say one's piece
say on pay
say-so
say someone's prayers
say that
say that again
say the quiet part loud
say the quiet part out loud
say the word
say to oneself
say uncle
say wha
say what
say what you like
say when
say word one
say yes
say you swear
shall I say
shall we say
so they say
so to say
strange to say
sufficed to say
suffice it to say
suffice to say
that is to say
that's saying something
that's what he said
the deuce you say
the devil you say
the dickens you say
the hell you say
there is much to be said
there isn't any easy way to say this
they say
those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it
though I say it who should not
though I say it who should not say it
though I say so myself
to say nothing of
to say the least
unsay
what can I say
what do you say
whatever you say
what say you
what you saying
which is to say
withsay
wouldn't you say
yea-say
you can say that again
you can't say fairer than that
you don't say
you hear what I'm saying
you know what I'm saying
you know what they say
you were saying
Related terms: word: hearsay
word: say again