Say

How to spell say

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce say

What does say mean?

1. verbTo utter words, to express something aloud or in writing.
2. nounAn opportunity to influence a decision or express an opinion.

Say in a sentence

• verb

  The instructions do not say how long to bake the bread.

• noun

  Every team member should have a say in the final budget.

• verb

  The instructions say to charge the device overnight.

• noun

  Residents wanted more say over the new parking rules.

Where does say come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Say descends from the Old English verb secgan, which meant to utter, to tell, or to speak, and it can be traced back to a Proto-Germanic root sagjan with the same basic sense. Close relatives survive across the Germanic family, including Dutch zeggen and German sagen, all carrying the idea of putting something into words. Over the centuries the spelling smoothed out: the older medial consonant cluster of secgan softened, the verb lost its harder ending, and Middle English settled on the short, vowel-heavy forms seyen and sayen before modern say emerged. The irregular past tense said preserves a clue to that older pronunciation, which is why the vowel in say and said differs even though they share one root. Because the word is so short and so common, the trap is not in its letters but in choosing it correctly against its near-twin sound in homophone-rich English writing.

How the word is built

• say (from Old English secgan: to utter, to speak)