sausage
Americannoun
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minced pork, beef, or other meats, often combined, together with various added ingredients and seasonings, usually stuffed into a prepared intestine or other casing and often made in links.
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Aeronautics. a sausage-shaped observation balloon, formerly used in warfare.
noun
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finely minced meat, esp pork or beef, mixed with fat, cereal or bread, and seasonings ( sausage meat ), and packed into a tube-shaped animal intestine or synthetic casing
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an object shaped like a sausage
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informal aeronautics a captive balloon shaped like a sausage
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nothing at all
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sausage
1400–50; late Middle English sausige < dialectal Old French sausiche < Late Latin salsīcia, neuter plural of salsīcius seasoned with salt, derivative of Latin salsus salted. See sauce, -itious
Compare meaning
How does sausage compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Sausage is a food made from meat that's minced or ground, flavored with seasonings, and encased in a thin skin. It's best not to think too much about what lives inside a sausage casing; just enjoy eating it. There are many kinds of sausage, some of which are sold raw, some cooked, and others smoked, cured, or dried. Traditionally, sausages have been a way to avoid waste, by using the less appealing parts of a butchered pig or cow, and a practical way to preserve meat so that it doesn't have to be cooked immediately or frozen. In the mid-fifteenth century, the word was spelled sawsyge, from a Latin root, salsus, or "salted."
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.
“That’s unheard of,” said Dayton Vesey, 30, surveying empty seating from behind the counter at Leavenworth Sausage Garten.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 21, 2025
It’s so much more satisfying to sink your teeth into the Smoked Hunter Sausage from Oscar’s Smokehouse in Warrensburg, N.Y.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
The chain is slated to roll out additional discounts in November, including $5 Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles and $8 10-piece Chicken McNuggets meals, according to USA TODAY.
From Salon • Sep. 13, 2025
It also has released a new product line called Beyond Sun Sausage that unlike the company’s core products does not seek to mimic and replace meat.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2024
“You got that turned around in your mind. He won in Sausage and Headcheese. Don’t I look more like a pie baker than him?”
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
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.
