Word.ws English Dictionary

zay

zay is the pronunciation spelling of they.

zay is the pronunciation spelling of say.

Meaning of they

Pronoun

they (third-person, nominative case, usually plural, sometimes singular, objective case them, possessive their, possessive noun theirs, reflexive themselves, or reflexive singular themself)

  1. (nominative, plural, singular, sometimes, third-person, usually) A group of entities previously mentioned.
    • Fred and Jane? They just arrived.
  2. (nominative, plural, singular, sometimes, third-person, usually) One whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or both.
    • Somebody requested a seat at Friday's performance but didn't say if they preferred the balcony or the floor. [The gender is unknown and irrelevant.]
  3. (nominative, plural, singular, sometimes, third-person, usually) One who is nonbinary.
    • There is no need to panic. Robin should be here soon and they will know what to do. [Robin is nonbinary and uses singular they.]
  4. (indefinite, nominative, plural, pronoun, singular, sometimes) People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.
    • They say it’s a good place to live.
  5. (indefinite, nominative, plural, pronoun, singular, sometimes) The authorities, the (power) elites, the powers that be, the establishment, the man, the system: government, police, employers, etc.
    • They'll tax us for the air we breathe next.
  6. (nominative, plural, singular, sometimes, third-person, usually) The opponents of the side which is keeping score.
    Antonyms:
    we

See all 11 meanings of they

Meaning of say

Verb

say (third-person singular simple present says, present participle saying, simple past and past participle said)

  1. (transitive) To pronounce.
    • Please say your name slowly and clearly.
  2. (transitive) To recite.
    • Martha, will you say the Pledge of Allegiance?
  3. (transitive) To tell, either verbally or in writing.
    • He said he would be here tomorrow.
  4. (transitive) To indicate in a written form.
    • The sign says it’s 50 kilometres to Paris.
  5. (impersonal, transitive) To have a common expression; used in singular passive voice or plural active voice to indicate a rumor or well-known fact.
    • They say "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", which means "behave as those around you do."
  6. (imperative, informal, transitive) Suppose, assume; used to mark an example, supposition or hypothesis.
    • A holiday somewhere warm – Florida, say – would be nice.

See all 18 meanings of say

Noun (1)

zay (plural zays)

  1. zayin, the seventh letter of many Semitic alphabets.

Proper noun capitalized: Zay

Zay

  1. An Afroasiatic language of the Semitic branch spoken in Ethiopia.

Noun (2) capitalized: Zay

Zay pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The people who speak this language.

Forms of zay

pluralzays

Questions about zay

What does zay mean?
Zay means zayin, the seventh letter of many Semitic alphabets.
What is zay the pronunciation spelling of?
Zay is the pronunciation spelling of they.
What part of speech is zay?
Zay can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of zay?
The plural of zay is zays.

Words near zay in the dictionary

  1. zawn
  2. zawns
  3. Zawra'
  4. zax
  5. zaxes
  6. zay
  7. Zaya
  8. Zayante
  9. Zayas
  10. Zayases
  11. zayat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zay (page history and authors); Zay (page history and authors); they (page history and authors); say (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.

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