sax
noun
sax
1 American
[saks]
/ sæks /
noun
Informal.
sax
2
American
[saks]
/ sæks /
noun
Sax.
3
American
abbreviation
-
Saxon.
-
Saxony.
sax
1
British
/ sæks /
noun
sax
2
British
/ sæks /
noun
Etymology
Origin of sax1
By shortening
Origin of sax2
before 900; Middle English sexe, Old English seax, sæx; cognate with Old Norse sax ( Swedish, Danish sax scissors). See saw 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A thudding kick drum and a mournful sax set up “I’ll Play the Fool” before a rubbery rumba beat and swing band take over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
"Freedom Suite," led by Rollins' confident sax and also notable for Max Roach's drumming, proved controversial enough that a reissue chose another title for the album.
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
Dr. Todd Forman is a practicing physician who went to Harvard, taught at USC, and played sax with Sublime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
Does this mean that Moore has traded in his axe for a sax?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
Then other instruments, notably sax, trombone and trumpet, perform similarly athletic interludes atop the structure.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The verb only exists in the Sax. in the pt. t. þærnode, Chron.
From The Lay of Havelok the Dane by Unknown
I am inclined to bring in here the Granta, and to suggest that it may have been a Sax. or Angle name of the Cam, or of a certain part of the Cam.
From The River-Names of Europe by Robert Ferguson
Borwe, Sax., is pledge or security, and to borrow is to secure.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 by William Carew Hazlitt
The verb in the Sax. is hlystan, but in Su.-G. lyda, and Isl. hlyda, which approaches nearer to the form in the poem.
From The Lay of Havelok the Dane by Unknown
The only word in the Sax. remaining to which it can be referred, is unornlic, tritus, Jos.
From The Lay of Havelok the Dane by Unknown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
