saucer
Americannoun
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saucers
plural
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a small, round, shallow dish to hold a cup.
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something resembling a saucer, as in shape.
noun
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a small round dish on which a cup is set
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any similar dish
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of saucer
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English word from Old French word saussier. See sauce, -er 2
Explanation
A saucer is a small, rounded dish that sits beneath a tea or coffee cup. Other kinds of saucers include objects with a similar round shape — like a flying saucer. Saucers that live under cups are useful for catching drips from and protecting the table. Many mugs and cups come without saucers, but the cups in a traditional tea service have matching saucers, and coffee cups at a restaurant or cafe are also frequently served with saucers. Objects with a similar round shape can also be called saucers, including flying saucers and saucer-shaped TV antennas. The very earliest saucers were small sauce dishes, and the word stems from the Latin salsus, or "sauce."
Vocabulary lists containing saucer
Novel Study: Ten Days in a Mad-House, Chapters I–X
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Selection Vocabulary 3, Unit 6
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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:
Approaching audience members to explore their own feelings about their hair, she receives with surprised saucer eyes encouragement to embrace the braids she has.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Among the munitions were dozens of thick, green plastic discs about the diameter of a saucer.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025
She cited an old adage: The House of Representatives is the hot tea, and the Senate is the saucer where things cool down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2024
Another spacecraft will then snag the samples and send them to Earth, where they’ll fall to the same Utah desert where Hays watched the saucer drop last year.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2024
Then he got up, turned his chair around, sat down again, put the saucer in his lap, took another drag on his cigarette, and studied Margaret, enjoying the attention.
From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg
Its quiet assurance that experts had a handle on flying saucers and a plan to meet them felt comforting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
An Air Force intelligence report -- marked "top secret" -- from November of the following year features information on reported sightings of "unidentified aircraft" and "flying saucers."
From Barron's ● May 8, 2026
Most of that original set was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake, save for a few saucers, a cream pitcher and a cup or two, which is pretty much what now survived the fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
And the Barghest was a spectre who took the form of a bear or a black dog with large, flaming eyes as big as saucers.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2024
In the front room of the house, four antique cups were set out on little saucers..
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
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.
