Sari

How to spell sari

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sari

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sari mean?

1. nounA traditional garment of the Indian subcontinent, made from a long length of cloth wrapped around the body and draped over one shoulder.

Sari in a sentence

• She chose a deep red silk sari for the wedding.

• The shop on the corner sells fabric for every sari in dozens of colours.

Where does sari come from?

Language of origin: Sanskrit

The word came into English in the early 1600s from Hindi sari, which traces back to the Sanskrit shati, meaning a strip or length of cloth. The garment itself is one of the oldest forms of dress still worn today: a single long piece of fabric, often five to nine yards in length, draped around the body and over the shoulder without any stitching. English traders and writers under the East India Company picked up the word during their early contact with the Indian subcontinent, and the spelling settled as 'sari' (occasionally 'saree' in South Asian English). Because the word is a faithful phonetic borrowing rather than a Latin or French formation, it has no prefix or suffix to puzzle over; the only real trap is whether to write one 'r' or two and whether to end in '-i' or '-ee'.

How the word is built

• sari (a single unanalysable borrowing from Hindi sari, ultimately Sanskrit shati: strip of cloth)

Words that sound like sari

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• sorry: Feeling regret, sympathy, or apology about something.