1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

sailed

verb

past tense of sail
1
as in ferried
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 flowed
to move or proceed smoothly and readily sailed through the latest assignment

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in hovered
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

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 sailed The family sailed on the Lusitania in 1914, a year before a German torpedo sank the ship and killed nearly twelve hundred people. — Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2026 Wearing a headband and a hard look, Chen took a breath and sailed over a man and two motorcycles. — Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026 Kent missed a 34-yard attempt late in the second quarter, which sailed way off the mark four snaps after missing a 37-yarder negated by an offsides penalty. — ABC News, 19 Sep. 2026 The first pass of the afternoon from Rutgers quarterback Dylan Lonergan sailed past his receiver and directly to USC safety Christian Pierce, who returned the ball to the Scarlet Knights’ 24-yard line. — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2026 And a 26-year-old naturalist named Charles Darwin arrived aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle, which had sailed from England nearly four years earlier on a mission to chart South America. — Michele Metych Britannica Editors Sep. 14, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Sep. 2026 Tyler Shough’s two-point pass attempt sailed over Noah Fant, allowing Detroit to avoid the near-collapse with a 31-30 victory in overtime. — Doug Kezirian, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026 The cases involved three travelers who sailed aboard Norwegian Prima, a 3,200-passenger vessel, in May and July 2026, the blog Cruise Fever reported. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 10 Sep. 2026 Only a handful of families sailed onboard, with children under 10 numbering in the single digits. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sailed
  1. ferried
  2. flowed
  3. hovered
  4. cruised
  5. drifted
  6. floated
  7. boated
  8. glided
Verb
  • The defunct Amtrak line, which ran more than 2,600 miles between Seattle and Chicago, ferried passengers to stops in Boise, Pocatello and Salt Lake City, winding along tracks that still carve through Idaho’s Snake River Plain today.
    — Rose Evans September 15, Idaho Statesman, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The Pilot once ferried maritime pilots to larger ships in Boston Harbor.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of ferried
Verb
  • Private investment is growing—more than $14 billion flowed into nature in 2025—but remains nowhere close to the scale required.
    — Marcene Mitchell, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Tears and emotions flowed after the game as Lewis’ family embraced the team.
    — Nathan Pilling, Kansas City Star, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of flowed
Verb
  • Measles rates in the country hovered around 100 to 300 cases total between 2021 and 2025.
    — Lauren J. Young, Scientific American, 18 Sep. 2026
  • After sailing about half an hour, Choi’s navy yard utility boat slowed and hovered – never fully stopping as the water was far deeper than the length of the anchor.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of hovered
Verb
  • The Wildcats had three of their four takeaways in the first half to pull to a 21-point halftime lead and cruised to a 41-7 victory in Evanston.
    — Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Quarterback Dante Reno threw for a ridiculous 454 passing yards and five touchdowns as Yale cruised past Holy Cross to open its 153rd football season.
    — Kels Dayton, Hartford Courant, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of cruised
Verb
  • Unfortunately, over the decades, the program has drifted wildly off course.
    — Christina Smith, Baltimore Sun, 24 Sep. 2026
  • But six months later, almost no one was using it, and the model’s outputs had drifted away from the business it was built to serve.
    — Hiromi Nakatani, Forbes.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of drifted
Verb
  • Icebergs that barely fit into the frame of my wide-angle lens floated past.
    — Pier Nirandara, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Other cast members have floated potentially leaving the show.
    — Nicole Fell, HollywoodReporter, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of floated
Verb
  • Over two partial days and one full day of fishing – roughly 15 hours total – the three of us boated 53 catfish up to 25 pounds.
    — Brad Dokken, Twin Cities, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Many of the 30,000 tourists last year who boated down the Paraguay River beside the Serra do Amolar, about 60 miles downriver from Porto Jofre, were guests on liveaboard fishing charters.
    — Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 Aug. 2025
Definition of boated
Verb
  • The pinkish squid glided two miles beneath the surface, its long, pale legs trailing from undulating fins, stunning scientists who know remarkably little about its diet, behavior or reproduction.
    — Fedor Zarkhin, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Merino glided away from challenges to keep Arsenal in control.
    — Thom Harris, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of glided

Browse Nearby Words

sailboats
sailed
sailed into
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Sailed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sailed. Accessed 27 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

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

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

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 25
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

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
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All