DictionaryAI

sake

noun
SAYK/ˈseɪk/

Pluralsakes

4 meanings of sake

Practice

  1. 1
    purposenoun
    The purpose, end, or reason for which an action is taken.

    For the sake of clarity, the manual avoids technical terms.

    They rearranged the entire schedule for the sake of efficiency.

    UsageUsually for the sake of + noun, as in for the sake of argument. Note the apostrophe in for old times' sake.

    Similarpurpose, interest, reason, end

    Note

    Here the reason is an abstraction rather than a person: clarity, efficiency, old times. Compare the benefit sense, where someone gains something. Here nobody gains, and the phrase simply names the motive.

  2. 2
    noun
    The benefit, interest, or well-being of a person or thing, taken as a reason for doing something (usually in 'for someone's/something's sake').

    They protected the wetlands for the sake of future generations.

    Please keep your voices down, for the baby's sake; she's finally asleep.

    UsageUse a possessive, as in for her sake or for the baby's sake, or use for the sake of + noun phrase.

    Similarbenefit, good, welfare

    Note

    A construction with a long continuous history: Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 already has for the chosen's sake, and the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) writes I liked the man for his own sake. That second pattern is worth knowing. For its own sake or for his own sake means valued in itself, not for what it brings. A possessive before sake suits a single person or pronoun, while for the sake of carries longer phrases.

  3. 3
    rice winenouncountable or uncountable
    Another spelling of saké: a Japanese alcoholic drink made from fermented rice.

    The restaurant serves chilled sake alongside its seafood dishes.

    He brewed sake at home using polished rice and koji.

    Note

    A separate loanword from Japanese that happens to share the native word's spelling, though some writers add an accent and print saké. It works both as a mass noun (a cup of sake) and as a count noun for kinds or servings (two sakes from the same brewery). Context keeps it apart from the "benefit" word, which rarely appears outside for the sake of or for someone's sake.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    nounobsoletecountable
    Contention or strife; also guilt, sin, or an accusation or charge brought against a person.

    Similarfeud, quarrel, dispute, strife, charge

    Note

    This is the layer closest to the word's origin in Old English sacu, a lawsuit or dispute, and it is now obsolete outside set phrases. The King James Bible of 1611 has cursed is the ground for thy sake. A modern reader hears "for your benefit," but the older sense of guilt or charge makes it "because of what you did." In modern writing it belongs only in historical or deliberately archaic prose.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

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Origin

Old English sacu ("cause, lawsuit, dispute") became Middle English sake ("sake, cause"). Further back it comes from Proto-Germanic *sakō ("affair, matter, charge") and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to investigate." Dutch zaak and German Sache ("thing, matter, cause") are related.