sari
Americannoun
-
saris
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sari
1570–80; < Hindi sāṛī < Sanskrit śāṭī
Explanation
A sari is a piece of clothing that South Asian women often wear. If you go to a wedding in India, you'll probably see the bride wearing a red silk sari. A sari consists of one very long piece of fabric that's wrapped around the body and draped over a shoulder, and garments worn underneath, including a short-sleeved blouse. The style and fabric of a sari, as well as the way it's worn, varies between different regions and traditions. You can also spell this word saree. It comes from the Hindi sari and the Sanskrit root sati, "garment" or "petticoat."
Vocabulary lists containing sari
English Words Derived from Hindi
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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:
When her slippers kept slipping off, she removed them, gathered her sari and ran barefoot, pulling ahead to win the women's 30-60 category.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
"I believe the rituals here bring good things," she says, adjusting her sari.
From Barron's ● May 3, 2026
"Usually, I feel alone. Here, I see so many like me," says Dhanshika, another member of the community, smiling as she watched friends dressed in their finest sari dresses.
From Barron's ● May 3, 2026
"There's a scene towards the end where Roy is wearing a red sari," Dungarpur said.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026
Ira stood defiant before him, uttering no denial, fingers plucking at the fringe of her sari.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
While living on the subcontinent, she wore saris and salwar kameez and enjoyed traveling alone “in part because, as a woman, I had the advantage of special seats in restaurants and railroad cars.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Many men wear the traditional knee-length kurtas for special occasions while flowing saris remain the most popular for women.
From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025
Drinking dipped substantially – after three years, by 41% among men and nearly 70% for women – and families had more disposable income: in the first year of prohibition, the sale of saris surged 1,715%.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2025
His earliest memories of fabric were totally sensory, he said, recalling the downy feel of a jamawar shawl at home in Srinagar and the soft warmth of his mother's shahtoosh saris.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2024
The widows in their white saris stole silently from the temple.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
