Slips

How to spell slips

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce slips

What does slips mean?

1. verbSlides or loses grip suddenly, or moves quietly and smoothly.
2. nounSmall narrow pieces of paper, such as receipts or notes.
3. nounMinor mistakes or lapses, often careless ones.

Slips in a sentence

• verb

  A wet floor is dangerous because anyone can slips on it.

• noun

  He kept all his betting slips in a shoebox under the bed.

• noun

  The report had a few small slips that the editor quickly fixed.

• verb

  The dog often slips out of its collar during walks.

• noun

  The cashier handed me two slips confirming the refund.

• noun

  Tiredness causes the kind of careless slips that ruin a tidy ledger.

Where does slips come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word slip arrived in Middle English around the 1300s, most likely from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch slippen, meaning 'to glide' or 'to slide smoothly', words that came from a shared Germanic root suggesting a slick, gliding motion. The same family gave English the words 'slippery' and 'slope'. Over time slip branched out: as a verb it kept the idea of losing one's footing or sliding away, and as a noun it picked up several practical senses, including a small narrow piece of paper (from the notion of something thin and easily detached) and a light undergarment. The plural and verb form simply adds -s to the base, so the spelling stays regular and phonetic. Because the word is so short and follows ordinary spelling rules, the only thing to watch is the single p before the -s.

How the word is built

• slip (to slide, or a small strip)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)