Meanings
plural saltires
- The Saint Andrew's cross, the flag of Scotland.
But the World Cup winning veteran's left boot was awry again, the attempt sliced horribly wide of the left upright, and the saltires were waving aloft again a moment later when a long pass in the England midfield was picked off to almost offer up a breakaway try.
2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16 – 12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 26 Sep 20161 more example
It was early August. In the Borders, there were few signs yet of a campaign that could take Scotland out of the United Kingdom. A large Y-E-S hung in separate letters from a tree on the road from Coldstream to Kelso. There wasn't a N-O to match it, but Kelso town hall flew both the saltire and the union jack.
2014 September 16, Ian Jack, “Is this the end of Britishness?”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 18 Apr 2016Synonyms: Saint Andrew's cross
- The Saint Patrick's Cross, the pre 1922 flag of Ireland.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe Saint Andrew's cross, the flag of Scotland.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna cross resembling the letter x, with diagonal bars of equal length
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinsaltāre“to dance, to jump”
- Old Frenchsautoir“stile, saltire”
- Middle Englishsawtoure
- Englishsaltire
From Middle English sawtoure, from Old French sautoir (“stile, saltire”) (compare French sautoir (“saltire”)), from sauter (“to jump, to leap”) + -oir (subject forming nouns denoting physical objects from verbs), from Latin saltāre (“to dance, to jump”) + -orium, -oria.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish vinoristi
- vinoristiordinary in the shape of a cross
French sautoir
- sautoirordinary in the shape of a cross
German Andreaskreuz, Schrägkreuz
- Andreaskreuzordinary in the shape of a cross
- Schrägkreuzordinary in the shape of a cross
Scottish Gaelic crann
- crannordinary in the shape of a cross
Swedish andreaskors, krysskors
- andreaskorsordinary in the shape of a cross
- krysskorsordinary in the shape of a cross
- X-korsordinary in the shape of a cross
- snedkorsordinary in the shape of a cross
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
saltire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltire
“saltire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltire. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “saltire,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltire.
Source: saltire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.