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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sax.

Alternative spelling of zax.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/sæks/

  1. Alternative spelling of zax.

    alt-of · alternative

  2. A knife or sword; a dagger about 50 cm (20 inches) in length.

    obsolete

  3. An early medieval type of machete common with the Germanic peoples.

    historical
Where this word 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.

verb/sæks/

  1. To cut or slash with a sharp instrument; incise; scarify.

    UK · dialectal · transitive
Where this word 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.

verb/sæks/

  1. To play the saxophone

Where this word comes from

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

noun/sæks/

  1. a shade of colour similar to sky blue

Where this word comes from

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

noun/sæks/

  1. Clipping of saxophone.

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping
Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.