Sane

How to spell sane

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sane

What does sane mean?

1. adjectiveOf sound mind; rational, sensible, and mentally healthy.

Sane in a sentence

• After the long ordeal, she felt grateful to remain calm and sane.

• Taking a short break each afternoon is the only sane way to handle the workload.

Where does sane come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes directly from the Latin sanus, an adjective that literally meant 'healthy' or 'sound', whether describing the body or the mind. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, narrowing the broad Roman sense of bodily health toward soundness of mind in particular. The same Latin root survives in many relatives: 'sanity', 'sanitary', and 'sanitation' all trace back to the idea of being clean and healthy, and the Latin phrase 'mens sana in corpore sano' (a healthy mind in a healthy body) preserves the original double sense. The verb 'sanitise' belongs to the same family. The spelling is admirably regular, with the silent final 'e' lengthening the vowel, so the chief thing to remember is the plain 'san' root rather than any tricky cluster.

How the word is built

• san- (from Latin sanus: healthy, sound)
• -e