Sake

Pronunciation

• enPR: sāk, IPA: /seɪk/
• Rhymes: -eɪk

From Middle English sake ("sake, cause"), from Old English sacu ("cause, lawsuit, legal action, complaint, issue, dispute"), from Proto-Germanic *sakō ("affair, thing, charge, accusation, matter"), from Proto-Indo-European *sag- ("to investigate"). Akin to West Frisian saak, Low German sake, Dutch zaak "cause, thing", German Sache "thing, legal cause", Danish sag, Swedish sak, Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjo, "dispute, argument"), Old English sōcn ("inquiry, prosecution"), Old English sēcan ("to seek"). More at soke, soken, seek.

Full definition of sake

Noun

1. Cause, interest or account.
• For the sake of argument
2. Purpose or end; reason.
• For old times' sake
3. The benefit or regard of someone or something.
• 1897, w, w:The Celebrity Chapter 1, 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.
• 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. Stephanus pagination.But it will be for your sake that we'll undertake to refute this thesis,...
4. obsolete except in phrases Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.
• And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. — Genesis 3:17

Usage notes

The word sake is generally used in constructions of the form "for X's sake" or "for the sake of X", where X is a noun. (See the quotations above, for sake of, and for the sake of.)

Garner's Modern American Usage notes it is common to write an apostrophe rather than apostrophe–ess in this construction when the noun ends in an /s/ or /z/ sound: for appearance' sake, for goodness' sake.

Derived terms

• for Christ’s sake
• for fuck's sake
• for God’s sake
• for heaven’s sake
• for sake of
• for the sake of
• for the sake of it

Pronunciation

• enPR: säkā, IPA: /sɑːkeɪ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːkeɪ
• enPR: säkÄ“, IPA: /sɑːki/
• Rhymes: -ɑːki

From Japanese é…’, any alcoholic drink.

Alternative forms

• saké, saki

Noun

1. countable and uncountable Rice wine, a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.

Synonyms

• rice wine

Anagrams

• akes, aske, keas