sail 1 of 2

verb

Definition of sailnext
1
as in to boat
to travel on water in a vessel I can't sail when there's any breeze at all because I get seasick easily

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in to flow
to move or proceed smoothly and readily sailed through the latest assignment

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in to hover
to rest or move along the surface of a liquid or in the air a leaf sailed by, carried by the breeze

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

sail

2 of 2

noun

ˈsāl How to pronounce sail (audio)
as in voyage
a journey over water in a vessel we went for a brief sail on the bay to relax

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of sail
Verb
Even Australians who wanted to get to San Francisco had less than half as far to travel as someone sailing from New York, and more than ten thousand of them soon passed through the Golden Gate. — Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026 Charging infrastructure at ports would supply the electricity needed for operation, allowing the concept to avoid direct carbon emissions while sailing. — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 23 Oct. 2026
Noun
Five retractable, 35-meter rigid sails double as solar panels; when wind drives the ship, propellers generate electricity onboard. — Ashlea Halpern, Time, 15 Oct. 2026 One of the ships is registered to Guinea-Bissau but the other one, the Chelsea-3, is Ukrainian-owned, registered in Odesa and sails under the flag of Malta, a European Union member. — ABC News, 14 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for sail
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sail
  1. boat
  2. flow
  3. hover
  4. voyage
  5. ferry
  6. cruise
  7. float
  8. glide
Verb
  • Naya Rivera, who played cheerleader Santana Lopez, died in an accidental drowning while boating with her 4-year-old son on a California lake in 2020.
    — Saba Hamedy, NBC news, 21 Oct. 2026
  • In the years since the series concluded, another loss was suffered as Rivera, who played Santana Lopez, died from drowning in 2020 after going boating with her four-year-old son.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of boat
Verb
  • From there, wine flowed as attendees tucked into filet mignon and sea bass while chatting across large burgundy floral centerpieces.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Vogue, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Some of the weapons from American manufacturers purchased during the Biden administration are still flowing to Ukraine, but many of those contracts have been fulfilled.
    — Lauren Kent, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of flow
Verb
  • With a police helicopter hovering overhead, police started using tear gas and a water cannon in an effort to move the protesters back.
    — Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Daytime temperatures hovered in the upper 40s to low 50s this week in Halifax, with overnight lows in the 30s, according to weather reports.
    — Deirdre Bardolf, FOXNews.com, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of hover
Noun
  • The nearly 1,000-foot (305-meter) vessel shattered the transatlantic speed record on its maiden voyage in 1952.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
  • The golden age of voyages on board tramp steamers and banana boats was the first half of the 20th century.
    — Maureen O'Hare, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of voyage
Verb
  • The truckers that have managed to ferry water into Taiz have in some cases tripled their rates to make the perilous journey.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Blue Origin and SpaceX each have multibillion-dollar contracts with the US space agency to develop vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts from NASA’s Orion spacecraft down to the lunar surface.
    — Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of ferry
Verb
  • Gazza, who has been cruising along all episode, doesn’t bowl the judges over with his treacle pudding or his Black Forest gâteau, which is a little bit shocking.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
  • From the Med, the liner will cruise southwest across the Atlantic to arrive in Saint John’s—the port from which the Caribbean season will unfold.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of cruise
Verb
  • Diversification into more reliable sectors, including tourism, has been floated as a means to bring in the hard currency needed to allow the nation more access to global markets.
    — Rebekah Evans, TheWeek, 26 Oct. 2026
  • As emerging economies and coastal hubs face growing power shortfalls, modular floating plants offer a way to secure grid capacity while keeping the door open to future hydrogen adoption.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of float
Verb
  • After a brief safety lesson on navigating the course and its cables, participants can ride a zip line into the park, gliding 60 feet above the quarry floor at speeds exceeding 30 mph.
    — Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Instead, look for a lip liner that glides on smoothly but has enough grip to keep color from migrating beyond the lip line.
    — Sheryl George, Allure, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of glide

Phrases Containing sail

Browse Nearby Words

said uncle
sail
sailboat
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Sail.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sail. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on sail

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about sail

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of shindig

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All