sag
/sæɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.25 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A place where the surface of the earth, a mountain range, a ridge, etc., sinks or droops.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The difference in elevation of a wire, cable, chain or rope suspended between two consecutive points.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The difference in height or depth between the vertex and the rim of a curved surface, specifically used for optical elements such as a mirror or lens.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "a mass of igneous rock […] shown as a semicircular area of shonkinite exposed in the west wall of the sag. From the valley below, it appears as a dark cliff, perhaps 100 feet in height and a few hundred yards long."
- "Gunsight Peak north of the sag marks the southern end of the Malad Range that extends into Idaho. Complexly faulted Cambrian and Ordovician shelf sedimentary rocks are present[…]"
- "She was bossy and proud, a dreadful sag of skin and bones, and she was a devilish hard worker."
- "A line or cable supported by its ends sags, even if it is tightly drawn."
- "The floor of a room sags."
- "Her once firm bosom began to sag in her thirties."
Etymology
From earlier sag, sagg, sack, from Middle English saggen, probably from Middle Low German sacken (“to sink, drift”), ultimately of North Germanic/Scandinavian/Old Norse origin, akin to Old Norse søkkva (“to sink”), a denasalized derivative of Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną (“to cause to sink”), related to Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną (“to sink”). Cognate with Scots seg (“to sink”), Danish sakke (“to lag behind”), Swedish sacka (“to lag”), Icelandic sakka (“to sink”), Faroese søkka (“to sink, drop down, descend, set”), Dutch zakken (“to fall, drop, sink”), German Low German sacken (“to sink”), and German sacken (“to sink”) (from Low German). Compare also Norwegian Nynorsk sagga (“to walk or move heavily and slowly”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: saggen, sacken, -, *sankwijaną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /sæɡ/
- British English: /sæɡ/