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skein

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skein¹

  • /skeɪn/ US, UK

Rhymes with -eɪn

Where it comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound”), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”).

The verb is derived from noun.

cognates

* Irish scáinne (“skein, clew”)

noun skeins · skain · skean

  1. A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter. Some for very nede / Layde downe a skeyne of threde, / And some a skeyne of yarne; […]
  2. broadly The membrane of a fish ovary.
  3. UK, broadly, collective, dialectal A group of wildfowl (for example, geese or swans) in flight. High above the swallows and 2 miles or so out into the Channel was a skein of geese, probably brent geese on the first day of their emigration from the estuaries of the Channel coast towards the high Arctic tundra of Spitsbergen or Russia.
  4. also, attributive, broadly, obsolete Synonym of spireme (“the tangled mass of strands of chromatin seen in the early stages of mitosis, originally believed to be a single continuous strand (or two in a diploid cell, etc.)”).

    Similar: spireme

  5. figuratively A tangle, a weave, a web. Not that I ſee through his perplexed plots, / And hidden ends, nor that my parts depend / Vpon the vnvvinding this ſo knotted skeane, / Doe I beſeech your patience.
  6. figuratively A winning streak.
  7. US, dated, figuratively A series created by a web (“major broadcasting network”). All three tele skeins are pitching furiously to snag the super Easter Day tele show to be bankrolled by Frigidaire, but no decision has been reached at press time. […] Bankroller will buy time on the skein delivering the largest number of live coaxial outlets, but none of the webs are as yet able to

verb skeins · skeining · skeined

  1. transitive To weave or wind (thread, yarn, etc.) into a skein (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1). Under section 7 of Act March 3, 1883, referring to section 2907, Rev. St., if skeining worsted or mohair yarns is necessary to render them merchantable yarns, the cost of skeining is a part of the value of the goods, and subject to duty. If skeining is necessary only for convenience in transportatio
  2. figuratively, transitive To intertwine or weave (something) with another thing. Water skeined the landscape. The Shannon River, lost since Limerick city, was drawing nearer to name the airport, and a tributary quickened its way towards it.

skein²

  • /skeɪn/ US, UK

Rhymes with -eɪn

Where it comes from

From Dutch scheen (“strip of metal or wood; (anatomy) shin”), from Middle Dutch schene, from Old Dutch *skina, from Proto-West Germanic *skinu (“bar; track; (anatomy) shin; spine”), from Proto-Germanic *skinō (“piece; plate; rim; (anatomy) shinbone”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”). Doublet of shin.

noun skeins

  1. transitive A thin strip of an osier (“long, pliable twig from a plant, usually a willow”) used in basketmaking. [F]or the finer work, as table-mats, fruit and work-baskets, and the like, the osiers are divided into four parts, lengthways, which are called splits, and these are afterwards reduced to various degrees of fineness, when they are called skeins.
  2. US, dated, transitive A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle of a wagon. On November 21, Dow, one of the free-state settlers went to the blacksmith's shop unarmed, carrying a waggon skein to be repaired. While he was at the shop, Coleman and Buckley of Missouri, and another pro-slavery man came up, all armed, and an angry discussion followed.

Translations

Every language

noun quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape

Españollina, madeja
日本語桛 kase
中文綹 /绺 liǔ
Portuguêsmadeixa, meada
Françaisécheveau
DeutschGebinde
Italianomatassa
Ελληνικάκουβάρι kouvári
Русскиймото́к motók, мото́к пря́жи motók prjáži

noun membrane of a fish ovary

Françaismembrane des oeufs

noun group of wildfowl in flight

Françaisvol
DeutschSchar
Italianostormo

noun tangle, weave, web

Españolenredo

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Cite this
MLA

"skein." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/skein. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

skein. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/skein

Chicago

"skein." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/skein.

BibTeX
@misc{skein_2026,
  title = {skein},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/skein},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}