sake
//ˈseɪ̯k//
Forms
- Plural
- sakes
Definitions
1.Cause, interest or account.
- I hope you're right, for all our sakes!
2.Purpose or end; reason.
- It's not worth risking your life for the sake of getting there a few minutes earlier.
3.The benefit or regard of someone or something.
- When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
4.Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2749
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English sake (“sake, cause”), from Old English sacu (“cause, lawsuit, legal action, complaint, issue, dispute”), from Proto-West Germanic *saku, from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“affair, thing, charge, accusation, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to investigate”).