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• sax
  sax

  noun

  saxophone.
• Sax.
  Sax.

  abbreviation

  Saxon.

sax

¹ American  

[saks] / sæks /

noun

Informal.

1. saxophone.

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sax ² American  

[saks] / sæks /

noun

1. a short, single-edged sword of ancient Scandinavia.

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Sax. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Saxon.

2. Saxony.

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sax ¹ British  

/ sæks /

noun

1. a tool resembling a small axe, used for cutting roofing slate

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sax ² British  

/ sæks /

noun

1. informal short for saxophone

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sax Sax.

Derbez is now the lead singer, sax player and band manager of Diles Que No Me Maten: one of the most acclaimed indie bands to emerge from Mexico in the last decade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

On that last track, recorded a dozen years ago, Mr. Lloyd, playing alto sax, seems like a fountain, distilling fragments of songs and scales into a narrative that spills forth in graceful gushes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 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

As Les Paul said, if you’re a pianist, you’re stuck behind the piano, and if you play the sax, you can’t play and sing at the same time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

I went into my mother’s room and put my sax on the bed that Momma used to sleep in when she was a little girl.

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Though the root-meaning seems rather that of clamminess or adhesiveness, as found in Sansc. limpas, Gr. λιπος, Lat. limus, Old Sax. lêmo, Mod.

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

Battel, from Sax. or , to count, or reckon, having the prefix be.

From Notes and Queries, Number 232, April 8, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Various

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

Rather, Mr. Turner says, from Sax. gradlie upright; gradely in Lanc., he observes, is an adjective simplifying everything respectable.

From Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850 by Various

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