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Added 8 October 2026

sell

/sɛl/ noun

In Latin: vendō Wiktionary

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

The activity of persuading someone to buy.
it was a hard sell

verb

Exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent.
He sold his house in January
Be sold at a certain price or in a certain way.
These books sell like hot cakes
Persuade somebody to accept something.
The French try to sell us their image as great lovers

Origin

From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Cognates Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Faroese and Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan, “to pay tribute, make an offer”).

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

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