Word.ws English Dictionary

seesaw

UK/ˈsiː.sɔː//ˈsi.sɔ/

seesaw noun: a structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.

seesaw: a structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

seesaw (plural seesaws)

  1. A structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.
    Synonyms:
    teeter-totter
  2. The game or pastime of seesawing.
    • Now Jill did laugh
      And Jack did cry,
      But his tears did soon abate,
      Then Jill did say,
      That they should play,
      At sea-saw across the gate.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 8
  3. (figuratively) A series of up-and-down movements.
  4. (figuratively) A series of alternating movements or feelings.
    • He has been arguing in a circle; there is thus a see-saw between the hypothesis and the fact.a. 1857, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood...
    • Manchester Citykept up their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with victory over QPR in an entertaining see-saw encounter at Loftus Road.2011 November 5, Phil Dawkes, “QPR 2 - 3 Man City”, in BBC Sport
  5. (attributive) An abnormal breathing pattern caused by airway obstruction, characterized by paradoxical chest and abdominal movement.
  6. A tactic in which a piece repeatedly gains material, while simultaneously creating an inescapable series of alternating direct and discovered checks.

Verb

seesaw (third-person singular simple present seesaws, present participle seesawing, simple past and past participle seesawed)

  1. (intransitive) To use a seesaw.
    • They sea-saw'd high,
      They sea-saw'd low,
      At length they both did tumble,
      We both are down
      We both must own,
      Let neither of us grumble.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 9
  2. (broadly, figuratively, intransitive) To fluctuate.
    • When I think of your kisses / My mind see-saws1971, “All I Want”, in Blue, performed by Joni Mitchell
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To cause to move backward and forward in a seesaw fashion.
    • He see-saws himself to and fro.1832, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eugene Aram

Adjective

seesaw (comparative more seesaw, superlative most seesaw)

  1. (figuratively) Fluctuating.

seesaw meaning in Urdu, Kannada, Tagalog and Malay

seesaw in Urdu

ہنڈولا, اونچ نیچ

seesaw in Kannada

ಆಡುಮಣೆ

seesaw in Tagalog

structure moving up and down, balanced in the middle
tiwasan

seesaw in Malay

structure moving up and down, balanced in the middle
jongkang-jongket
More languagesFewer languages
seesaw in Thai
กระดานหก grà-daan-hòk
seesaw in Vietnamese
bập bênh

Synonyms of seesaw

Forms of seesaw

Noun
pluralseesaws
alternative formsee-saw
Verb
third-person singular presentseesaws
present participleseesawing
past participleseesawed
pastseesawed
Adjective
comparativemore seesaw
superlativemost seesaw

Origin of seesaw

Probably a frequentative imitative of rhythmic back-and-forth, up-and-down or zigzagging motion, such as teeter-totter, zigzag, flip-flop, ping pong, etc., under the umbrella term of reduplication; also likely influenced by the verbs see and saw of either present or past tense.

Words formed from seesaw

Questions about seesaw

What does seesaw mean?
Seesaw means a structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.
What is seesaw in Urdu?
Seesaw in Urdu is ہنڈولا, اونچ نیچ. See Seesaw meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is seesaw?
Seesaw can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce seesaw?
Seesaw is pronounced /ˈsiː.sɔː/ (UK).
What is the plural of seesaw?
The plural of seesaw is seesaws.

Words near seesaw in the dictionary

  1. sees to it
  2. sees what sticks
  3. sees which way the cat jumps
  4. sees with half an eye
  5. sees yellow
  6. seesaw
  7. seesawed
  8. seesawing
  9. seesawings
  10. seesawlike
  11. seesaws

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: seesaw (page history and authors); seesaw (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); seesaw (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: En-us-seesaw.ogg.

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