adjective phrase
safe and sound
sayf uhnd SOWND
Safe and sound (adjective phrase) means having arrived or come through something without injury or harm, especially after a period of worry or danger. Example: “Text me when you get home safe and sound.”
adjective phrase
1
Having arrived or come through something without injury or harm, especially after a period of worry or danger.
"Text me when you get home safe and sound."
"All four climbers were found safe and sound after two nights on the mountain."
How to use safe and sound
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishBack with no harm done.
When to use it
Neutral and everyday, common in speech, messages and news reporting.
Memory tip
It follows a verb of arriving or being found, not the noun: they arrived safe and sound.
Trace the full origin ↓
Common pairings
home safe and sound
arrived safe and sound
found safe and sound
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Text me when you get home _____.
Etymology
A pairing of safe (“not in danger”) and sound (“intact, healthy”); compare Old French sauf et sain.
Related words
Rhymes for safe and sound
See all rhymes for safe and sound →Frequently asked questions
Is safe and sound redundant?
Technically yes, since sound here already means free from damage. It survives as a fixed alliterative pair, and the doubling is what gives it its reassuring warmth, so nobody trims it.
What does the sound in safe and sound mean?
It is the older sense of sound meaning whole, healthy and undamaged, the same one in of sound mind and a sound structure. It has nothing to do with noise.
When do you use safe and sound?
Almost always about a person or thing that has just completed a journey or escaped a risk. It rarely describes an ongoing state, so you would say she got back safe and sound rather than she is safe and sound at her desk.
What is the meaning of safe and sound?
"safe and sound" (adjective phrase) means having arrived or come through something without injury or harm, especially after a period of worry or danger.
