sale
noun
the act of selling.
sale
American
[sayl]
/ seɪl /
noun
-
sales
plural
idioms
-
on sale, able to be bought at reduced prices.
-
for sale, offered to be sold; made available to purchasers.
sale
1
British
/ seɪl /
noun
-
the exchange of goods, property, or services for an agreed sum of money or credit
-
the amount sold
-
the opportunity to sell; market
there was no sale for luxuries
-
the rate of selling or being sold
a slow sale of synthetic fabrics
-
-
an event at which goods are sold at reduced prices, usually to clear old stocks
-
( as modifier )
sale bargains
-
-
an auction
Sale
2
British
/ seɪl /
noun
-
a town in NW England, in Trafford unitary authority, Greater Manchester: a residential suburb of Manchester. Pop: 55 234 (2001)
-
a city in SE Australia, in SE Victoria: centre of an agricultural region. Pop: 12 854 (2001)
Salé
3
British
/ sale /
noun
sale
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sale
First recorded before 1050; Middle English; late Old English sala; cognate with Old Norse, Old High German sala; cf. sell 1
Explanation
A sale is what occurs whenever an object or service is given in return for a payment of money. The sale of your old bike will happen more quickly if you price it at $50 instead of $500. You can talk about the sale of your next door neighbor's house, and you can also describe the house as "for sale," or available to be purchased. When a store has a sale, it means goods temporarily cost less than usual — you can also say that things at that store are "on sale." The word sale comes from the Old English sala, from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing sale
Century 21 Accounting, 9e, Chapters 1-3
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Spelling Practice, Unit 8
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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:
Lakers owner Mark Walter and Josh Kushner reach an agreement on all of the previously undecided terms tied to the $12.5-billion sale of the NBA team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
The specialty crackers will go on sale in the coming weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
The statement said the "principal contractor" would be American company Lockheed Martin, adding that "no US funds are involved in this sale".
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Still other posts feature shoppers sharing where they’ve scored full-sized bars on sale for a little over $20.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
She found a loaf of bread on sale for fifteen cents and a jar of peanut butter for seventy-one cents.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
The Braves then had an edge with Sale starting Game 3.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026
The Atlanta Braves should have started Chris Sale in Game 2 of the division series against the Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026
On a new episode of Death, Sex & Money, host Anna Sale talks with Hill about his tumultuous childhood and the support system that helped him become the man he is today.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2026
Former Sale lock Andrews died at the Lions' team hotel on Friday, a day before their Champions Cup pool game against La Rochelle in France.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
“I think we should put a For Sale sign on Elaine’s house,” she said.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
When she left the Kenyan team to take over AS Salé in February, she became the first female head coach of a men’s club team in the Arab world.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2022
Moskvina’s pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won narrowly over the Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier in a disputed outcome.
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
Ms. Cherkaoui, a stylish woman of 41 with dark, short-cropped hair, grew up in Salé, near the capital of Rabat.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2018
The museum’s 17th-century home, the Hôtel Salé, in the historic Marais district, with its garden, courtyard and two-story, sculpture-encrusted entrance hall, has never been ideal for showing art.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2014
The Roman dominion ceased at the line drawn between Volubilis and Salé.
From In Morocco by Edith Wharton
The long-term trajectory of sales for a game like this once it finally hits store shelves is “incredibly big,” said Kontus.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 31, 2026
The mansion tax levies a 4% transfer tax on all L.A. property sales above $5.4 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.9 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
But the company’s sales are falling and its stock has slipped 29% over the past year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
“Nvidia needs the U.S. government to trust that vetting, both for its business with Southeast Asian data centers that rent computing power to Chinese companies, and for any future sales to China,” Chang said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 31, 2026
From here I see the floating billboards advertising sales.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
