Word.ws English Dictionary

foresail

foresail noun: the lowest (and usually the largest) square sail hung on the foremast.

Noun

foresail (plural foresails)

  1. (on a square-rigged ship) The lowest (and usually the largest) square sail hung on the foremast
  2. A square fore-and-aft sail set on the foremast, but behind it, on a schooner or other similar vessel.
  3. (on a sloop) A triangular sail set forward of the foremast: forestaysail.

Forms of foresail

pluralforesails

Origin of foresail

From fore- + sail. Compare Dutch voorzeil, German Vorsegel, Danish forsejl, Swedish försegel.

Questions about foresail

What does foresail mean?
Foresail means the lowest (and usually the largest) square sail hung on the foremast.
What part of speech is foresail?
Foresail is a noun.
What is the plural of foresail?
The plural of foresail is foresails.

Words near foresail in the dictionary

  1. forerunners
  2. forerunnership
  3. forerunning
  4. foreruns
  5. foresaid
  6. foresail
  7. foresails
  8. foresaken
  9. foresave
  10. foresaved
  11. foresaves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foresail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-foresail.wav.

Cite this entry: “foresail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foresail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.