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Added 9 October 2026

sax

/sæks/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about sax at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A Belgian maker of musical instruments who invented the saxophone (1814-1894).
A single-reed woodwind with a conical bore.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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