What does say mean?

Definitions for say
seɪsay

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word say.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. sayverb

    the chance to speak

    "let him have his say"

  2. state, say, tellverb

    express in words

    "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name"

  3. allege, aver, sayverb

    report or maintain

    "He alleged that he was the victim of a crime"; "He said it was too late to intervene in the war"; "The registrar says that I owe the school money"

  4. suppose, sayverb

    express a supposition

    "Let us say that he did not tell the truth"; "Let's say you had a lot of money--what would you do?"

  5. read, sayverb

    have or contain a certain wording or form

    "The passage reads as follows"; "What does the law say?"

  6. order, tell, enjoin, sayverb

    give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority

    "I said to him to go home"; "She ordered him to do the shopping"; "The mother told the child to get dressed"

  7. pronounce, articulate, enounce, sound out, enunciate, sayverb

    speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way

    "She pronounces French words in a funny way"; "I cannot say `zip wire'"; "Can the child sound out this complicated word?"

  8. sayverb

    communicate or express nonverbally

    "What does this painting say?"; "Did his face say anything about how he felt?"

  9. sayverb

    utter aloud

    "She said `Hello' to everyone in the office"

  10. sayverb

    state as one's opinion or judgement; declare

    "I say let's forget this whole business"

  11. sayverb

    recite or repeat a fixed text

    "Say grace"; "She said her `Hail Mary'"

  12. sayverb

    indicate

    "The clock says noon"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Saynoun

    Etymology: from the verb.

    He no sooner said out his say, but up rises a cunning snap. Roger L'Estrange.

    Since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
    And that thy tongue some ’say of breeding breathes,
    By rule of knighthood I disdain. William Shakespeare.

    So good a say invites the eye,
    A little downward to espy
    The lively clusters of her breasts. Philip Sidney.

    This gentleman having brought that earth to the publick ’say masters, and upon their being unable to bring it to fusion, or make it fly away, he had procured a little of it, and with a peculiar flux separated a third part of pure gold. Boyle.

  2. To Sayverb

    preter. said.

    Etymology: secgan , Saxon; seggen, Dutch.

    Say it out, Diggon, for whatever it hight;
    For nought but well mought him betight,
    He is so meek. Edmund Spenser.

    In this slumbry agitation what have you heard her say? William Shakespeare.

    Speak unto Solomon; for he will not say thee nay. 1 Kings.

    After all can be said against a thing, this will still be true, that many things possibly are, which we know not of. John Tillotson.

    In vain shall we attempt to justify ourselves, as the rich young man in the gospel did, by appealing to the great duties of the law; unless we can say somewhat more, even that we have been liberal in our distributions to the poor. Francis Atterbury.

    With flying speed, and seeming great pretence,
    Came messenger with letters which his message said. F. Qu.

  3. To Sayverb

    He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee; and she said, say on. 1 Kings ii. 14.

    Say nothing to any man, but go thy way. Mar. i. 44.

    To the others he said, go ye after him. Ezek. ix. 5.

    The council-table and star-chamber hold, as Thucydides said of the Athenians, for honourable that which pleased, and for just that which profited. Edward Hyde.

    The lion here has taken his right measures, that is to say, he has made a true judgment. Roger L'Estrange.

    He has left his succession as undetermined as if he had said nothing about it. John Locke.

    This ought to weigh with those whose reading is designed for much talk and little knowledge, and I have nothing to say to it. John Locke.

    Of some propositions it may be difficult to say whether they affirm or deny; as when we say, Plato was no fool. Isaac Watts.

    Say first what cause
    Mov’d our grand parents to fall off? John Milton.

    Say, Stella, feel you no content,
    Reflecting on a life well-spent. Jonathan Swift.

Wikipedia

  1. Say

    Say is a song by John Mayer written for the Rob Reiner film The Bucket List in 2007. It was released as a single on November 20 and is the first commercial single in Mayer's career that was not originally released on one of his albums but added to the special edition re-release of his album Continuum. In the U. S., it has become the artist's highest charting single to date, reaching number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 in May, 2008. The song earned Mayer another Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, his fourth win on the category.

ChatGPT

  1. say

    Say, as a verb, refers to expressing something through spoken words or in written form. It involves conveying thoughts, opinions, information, or instructions by uttering or writing them down. Saying something typically involves using language to communicate ideas, statements, or messages to others.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Say

    saw

  2. Saynoun

    trial by sample; assay; sample; specimen; smack

  3. Saynoun

    tried quality; temper; proof

  4. Saynoun

    essay; trial; attempt

  5. Sayverb

    to try; to assay

  6. Saynoun

    a kind of silk or satin

  7. Saynoun

    a delicate kind of serge, or woolen cloth

  8. Sayverb

    to utter or express in words; to tell; to speak; to declare; as, he said many wise things

  9. Sayverb

    to repeat; to rehearse; to recite; to pronounce; as, to say a lesson

  10. Sayverb

    to announce as a decision or opinion; to state positively; to assert; hence, to form an opinion upon; to be sure about; to be determined in mind as to

  11. Sayverb

    to mention or suggest as an estimate, hypothesis, or approximation; hence, to suppose; -- in the imperative, followed sometimes by the subjunctive; as, he had, say fifty thousand dollars; the fox had run, say ten miles

  12. Sayverb

    to speak; to express an opinion; to make answer; to reply

  13. Sayverb

    a speech; something said; an expression of opinion; a current story; a maxim or proverb

  14. Etymology: [OE. seggen, seyen, siggen, sayen, sayn, AS. secgan; akin to OS. seggian, D. zeggen, LG. seggen, OHG. sagn, G. sagen, Icel. segja, Sw. sga, Dan. sige, Lith. sakyti; cf. OL. insece tell, relate, Gr. 'e`nnepe (for 'en-sepe), 'e`spete. Cf. Saga, Saw a saying.]

Wikidata

  1. Say

    "Say" is a song by John Mayer written for the Rob Reiner film The Bucket List in 2007. It was released as a single on November 20 and is the first commercial single in Mayer's career that was not originally released on one of his albums but added to the special edition re-release of his album Continuum. In the U.S., it has become the artist's highest charting single to date, reaching number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 in May, 2008. The song earned Mayer another Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, his fourth win on the category.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Say

    sā, v.t. to utter in words: to speak: to declare: to state: to answer: to rehearse: to recite: to take for granted.—v.i. to speak: to relate: to state:—pa.t. and pa.p. said (sed).—n. something said: a remark: a speech: a saw.—ns. Say′er, one who says: a speaker: one who assays; Say′ing, something said: an expression: a maxim; Say′-so, an authoritative declaration: a rumour, a mere report.—Say to, to think of.—It is said, or They say, it is commonly reputed; It says, equivalent to 'it is said;' That is to say, in other words. [A.S. secgan (sægde, gesægd); Ice. segja, Ger. sagen.]

  2. Say

    sā, n. (Spens.) assay, proof, temper (of a sword): (Shak.) taste, relish: a sample: trial by sample.—v.t. to assay, to try.—n. Say′master, one who makes proof. [A contr. of assay.]

  3. Say

    sā, n. a thin kind of silk: a kind of woollen stuff.—adj. (Shak.) silken. [O. Fr. saie—Low L. seta, silk—L. seta, a bristle.]

  4. Say

    sā, n. (Scot.) a strainer for milk.

The New Hacker's Dictionary

  1. say

    1. To type to a terminal. “To list a directory verbosely, you have to say ls -l.” Tends to imply a newline-terminated command (a ‘sentence’). 2. A computer may also be said to ‘say’ things to you, even if it doesn't have a speech synthesizer, by displaying them on a terminal in response to your commands. Hackers find it odd that this usage confuses mundanes.

Editors Contribution

  1. say

    To communicate, express or voice.

    They did say they can be at ours for dinner and we are delighted.


    Submitted by MaryC on January 19, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. say

    Song lyrics by say -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by say on the Lyrics.com website.

  2. SAY

    What does SAY stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the SAY acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. SAY

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Say is ranked #9803 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Say surname appeared 3,302 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Say.

    51.8% or 1,713 total occurrences were Asian.
    31.2% or 1,032 total occurrences were White.
    12.4% or 412 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.2% or 74 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1.6% or 54 total occurrences were Black.
    0.5% or 17 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'say' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #158

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'say' in Written Corpus Frequency: #83

  3. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'say' in Verbs Frequency: #5

How to pronounce say?

How to say say in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of say in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of say in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of say in a Sentence

  1. Irakli Kobakhidze:

    The statement does not say that prosecutor's office or courts are politically biased.

  2. Marilyn Laing:

    I have no words to say how bad, maybe one in 10 houses is standing.

  3. Amanuel Neguede:

    I've seen a lot of a lot of hate speech, that definitely does fuel ethnic violence in Myanmar Ethiopia, whenever there's a major offensive, for example that's happening in the north, we can see a lot of images of conflict that's happened in different countries used in a misleading context. I would say that most of the time we'll see posts surface -- especially posts that are widely shared -- after real news events.

  4. Wyndham Lewis:

    When we say science we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science, the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.

  5. Chuck Wexler:

    You just have to be honest and say that police in America are far more cautious today about stopping someone than they were a year ago, proactive policing is much more complicated. And now we're in the post George Floyd era, which makes police understandably cautious.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

say#1#496#10000

Translations for say

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for say »

Translation

Find a translation for the say definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"say." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/say>.

Discuss these say definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for say? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    the part of the alimentary canal between the stomach and the anus
    A confectionery
    B fancy
    C bowel
    D permutation

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for say: