Meaning & use
sloop
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A sailboat with one mast, usually carrying a mainsail and a single foresail set along the boat's length.
Grammar: Countable: a sloop, two sloops.
Patterns
- a sloop
- sail a sloop
They sailed their sloop along the coast.
The marina was full of small sloops and dinghies.
A sloop is easier to handle than a two-masted schooner.
Word forms
| plural | sloops |
|---|
Common combinations
- a sailing sloop
- The sailing sloop glided quietly into the harbor.
- single-masted sloop
- He prefers a single-masted sloop for short trips.
- sloop rig
- The boat has a sloop rig with one mainsail and one jib.
Synonyms and how they differ
Commonly confused: sloop or schooner? sloop or ketch?
sloop vs schooner
A schooner has two or more masts, while a sloop has only one.
sloop vs ketch
A ketch has two masts, with the aft mast shorter than the forward one; a sloop has a single mast.
Practice
A sloop is best described as a sailboat with:
Choose one answer.
A sloop has a single mast with a mainsail and a foresail. Two masts would make it a ketch or schooner, and no mast would make it a motorboat.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sloop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.