helter-skelter
Syllables: hel·ter-·skel·terUK/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə//ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/
helter-skelter adverb: in confused, disorderly haste.
.jpg){kind=link}
Adverb
helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)
- In confused, disorderly haste.
- The winds knocked huge trees helter-skelter all over my garden.
- But the butterflies were dead. A whiff of rotten eggs had vanquished the pale clouded yellows which came pelting across the orchard and up Dods Hill and away on to the moor, now lost behind a furze bush, then off again helter-skelter in a broiling sun.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 21
Adjective
helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)
- Carelessly hurried and confused.
- After World War II, from 1945 until the early 1960s, the helter-skelter growth of the reprint industry went largely unheeded by the general publishing industry, then under its own mounting pressures to publish new works for a growing reading public and ever-larger numbers of educational...1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 7
- Although his existential thoughts seem to have been tossed onto the page in helter-skelter fashion, what Gilboa does here is to open his mind and heart to the reader through verbal jaggedness and poetic unneatness.1994, Warren Bargad, "To Write the Lips of Sleepers": The Poetry of Amir Gilboa, page 232
Noun
helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)
- Confusion or turmoil.
- ‘I hardly know, — I imagine that it was with some dim idea of Marjorie’s being able to get in if she returned while I was absent, — but the truth is I was in such a condition of helter skelter that I am not prepared to swear that I had any reasonable reason.’1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle
- (Oh, oh, oh) / I'm looking for some shelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / From the helter-skelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / Just keep me away from / All who conspire / (Enemy fire...)2014, busbee, Meghan Kabir, “Enemy Fire”, in Young Blood, performed by Bea Miller
- An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower, most commonly modeled after lighthouses.
- He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading...1905 September 30, The Independent, Footscray, Vic, page 2, column 4
- When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride
'Till I get to the bottom, and I see you again
[...]
Well, look out, helter-skelter
She's coming down fast
Coming down fast on the helter-skelter, woo1968, Lennon–McCartney, “Helter Skelter”, in The White Album, performed by The Beatles
- Synonyms:
- helter-skelter lighthouse
helter-skelter meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
helter-skelter in Tamil
- in confused, disorderly haste
- துண்டைக் காணோம் துணியைக் காணோம் என்று tuṇṭaik kāṇōm tuṇiyaik kāṇōm eṉṟu
helter-skelter in Urdu
- بدنظمی, ہڑ بونگ
helter-skelter in Malayalam
- post-haste, headlong, pell-mell
- ബഹളത്തിൽ, വെപ്രാളത്തിൽ, വെപ്രാളത്തോടെ, പരിഭ്രമത്തോടുകൂടിയ ധൃതിയിൽ, വെപ്രാളപ്പെട്ട്, ധൃതിപിടിച്ച്
- chaotic, disordered, disorderly
- കുഴഞ്ഞ, അട്ടിമറിഞ്ഞ, ക്രമരഹിതമായ, അലങ്കേപ്പെട്ട, ക്രമം തെറ്റിയ, മുറതെറ്റിയ
Examples of helter-skelter in a sentence
- Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 104:
- For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:
Synonyms of helter-skelter
Forms of helter-skelter
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more helter-skelter |
| superlative | most helter-skelter |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more helter-skelter |
| superlative | most helter-skelter |
| Noun | |
| plural | helter-skelters |
Origin of helter-skelter
In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.
Phrases with helter-skelter
Words that rhyme with helter-skelter
Questions about helter-skelter
- What does helter-skelter mean?
- Helter-skelter means in confused, disorderly haste.
- What is helter-skelter in Tamil?
- Helter-skelter in Tamil is துண்டைக் காணோம் துணியைக் காணோம் என்று (tuṇṭaik kāṇōm tuṇiyaik kāṇōm eṉṟu). See Helter-skelter meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use helter-skelter in a sentence?
- Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.
- What part of speech is helter-skelter?
- Helter-skelter can be an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce helter-skelter?
- Helter-skelter is pronounced /ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/ (US).
Words near helter-skelter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: helter-skelter (page history and authors); helter-skelter (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); helter-skelter (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.
Cite this entry: “helter-skelter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/helter-skelter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.