sky
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sky¹
- /skaɪ/ US, UK
Sounds like Sky, Skye · Rhymes with -aɪ
Where it comes from
The noun is derived from Middle English sky (“sky; cloud; mist”), also spelled ski, skie, [and other forms], from Old Norse ský (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud; sky”), from *skiwô (“cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky”) (whence Old English sċēo (“cloud”) and Middle English skew (“air; sky; (rare) cloud”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”).
Partly displaced Old English heofon, which survives in the reflex heaven, still sometimes used in the sense of sky, but usually in high or poetic register.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
The English word is cognate with Old English scēo (“cloud”), Old Saxon scio, skio, skeo (“light cloud cover”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål sky (“cloud”), Old Irish ceo (“mist, fog”), Irish ceo (“mist, fog”). It is also related to Old English scūa (“shadow, darkness”), Latin obscūrus (“dark, shadowy”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “he covers”). See also hide, hose, house, hut, shoe.
noun skies · skie
- The atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen. That year, a meteor fell from the sky.
- With a descriptive word: the part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time; its climate, condition, etc. I lay back under a warm Texas sky.
- Usually preceded by the: the abode of God or the gods, angels, the souls of deceased people, etc.; heaven; also, powers emanating from heaven. This mortal has incurred the wrath of the skies.
- Ellipsis of sky blue But yet methinks, thoſe knots of Sky, do not / So well with the dead colour of her Face.
-
The set of all lightlike lines (or directions) passing through a given point in space-time.
Similar: celestial sphere
- In an art gallery: the upper rows of pictures that cannot easily be seen; also, the place where such pictures are hung.
- A cloud.
verb skies · skying · skied · skyed
- To drink (a beverage) from a container without one's lips touching the container.
-
To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the top of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen; (by extension) to put (something) in an undesirable place.
The artists—I mean the younger brood, and not the Brother Academicians who "skied" his pictures—were the first and the most enthusiastic in his [George Fuller's] praise.
Opposite: floor
- To toss (something) upwards; specifically, to flip (a coin). In ‘skying’ a coin for the purpose of deciding a point at issue between two parties, two methods are in vogue: there is either the ‘slow torture’ of spinning the coin thrice, the decision to go against the tosser-up, if the other party, twice out of the three times, guesses right on which side the c
- To clear (a high jump bar, hurdle, etc.) by a large margin.
- To hit, kick, or throw (a ball) extremely high. Hernandez [i.e., Félix Hernández] walked the bases loaded, then fell behind 3–1 in the count to Bobby Abreu, who then skied the next pitch to left for a sacrifice fly.
- To miss a goal by kicking the ball over the crossbar. He laid on the two best chances, both wasted by Pratt, who skied one and stubbed his toe on the other.
- To raise (the price of an item on auction, or the level of the bids generally) by bidding high. All of a sudden he appeared as a third competitor, skied the Flying Scud with four fat bids of a thousand dollars each, and then as suddenly fled the field, remaining thenceforth (as before) a silent, interested spectator.
- To move quickly, as if by flying; to fly; also, to escape, to flee (especially by airplane).
- To hit, kick, or throw a ball extremely high.
- To raise an oar too high above the water.
sky²
- /skaɪ/ US, UK
Sounds like Sky, Skye · Rhymes with -aɪ
Where it comes from
From Volsci (“a tribe who opposed the Romans”).
noun skies
- A disagreeable person; an enemy.
Sky³
Where it comes from
From sky. As a surname, a translation of German Himmel and an anglicization of Ashkenazic surnames ending in -sky.
proper noun
- A surname.
- A unisex given name from English. The bad thing was she took my son Skiff with her. It's a dumb name I know, but at the time he was born all the kids were being called things like Sky and Saffron and Powie, and I was really sold on sailing.
Sky⁴
proper noun
- Obsolete form of Skye (“Scottish island”). A strange instance of something of this nature, even when on horseback, happened when he was in the isle of Sky.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: flip, toss, pitch, welkin, firmament, heaven, sun, atmosphere, stars, horizon, star, hemisphere, moon, weather, mike, air
Translations
Every language
noun atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen
| Español | cielo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 하늘 haneul |
| 日本語 | 空 sora, 大空 ōzora, 天空 tenkū, 天 ame |
| 中文 | 天 tiān, 天空 tiānkōng |
| हिन्दी | आकाश ākāś, अम्बर ambar, गगन gagan, नभ nabh, आभ ābh, आसमान āsmān |
| Kiswahili | mbingu, anga |
| Português | céu |
| Français | ciel |
| Deutsch | Himmel |
| Italiano | cielo |
| Ελληνικά | ουρανός ouranós |
| Română | cer, чер cer |
| Русский | не́бо nébo |
| Tiếng Việt | trời |
| العربية | سَمَاء samāʔ |
| עברית | שמיים, שָׁמַיִם šamáyim |
noun part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time — see also firmament
| Español | cielo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 날씨 nalssi |
| 中文 | 天色 tiānsè, 天氣 /天气 tiānqì |
| हिन्दी | आकाश ākāś, गगन gagan, अम्बर ambar, व्योम vyom |
| Kiswahili | anga |
| Português | céu |
| Français | ciel |
| Deutsch | Himmel |
| Italiano | firmamento |
| Русский | не́бо nébo |
| Tiếng Việt | trời, thời tiết |
| العربية | سَمَاء samāʔ, سَمَاوَات samāwāt |
| עברית | שמיים, שָׁמַיִם šamáyim |
noun the abode of God or the gods, etc. — see also heaven
| Español | cielo, cielos |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 하늘나라 haneullara, 천국 cheon'guk |
| 日本語 | 天 ten, 天上 tenjō |
| 中文 | 天 tiān, 天堂 tiāntáng, 天國 /天国 tiānguó, 天空 tiānkōng |
| हिन्दी | आकाश ākāś, गगन gagan, देवलोक devlok, स्वर्ग svarg, अम्बर ambar |
| Kiswahili | anga |
| Português | céu |
| Français | ciel |
| Deutsch | Himmel |
| Italiano | cielo, paradiso |
| Română | cer, чер cer |
| Русский | небеса́ nebesá, не́бо nébo |
| Tiếng Việt | thiên đường |
| العربية | سَمَاوَات samāwāt |
| עברית | שמיים šamáyim |
noun set of all lightlike lines passing through a given point in space-time
| Русский | небе́сная сфе́ра nebésnaja sféra |
|---|
Talk about this word "sky." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sky. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sky. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sky "sky." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sky.Cite this
@misc{sky_2026,
title = {sky},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sky},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
