Word.ws English Dictionary

sheet

/ʃiːt//ʃit/

sheet noun: a thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper. Also the euphemistic form of shit.

Noun

sheet (plural sheets)

  1. A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.
    • Use the sheets in the hall closet to make the bed.
    • He fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 10:10-11
  2. A piece of paper, usually rectangular, that has been prepared for writing, artwork, drafting, wrapping, manufacture of packaging (boxes, envelopes, etc.), and for other uses. The word does not include scraps and irregular small pieces destined to be recycled, used for stuffing or cushioning or paper mache, etc. In modern books, each sheet of paper is typically folded in half, to produce two leaves and four pages. In the absence of folding, "leaf" and "sheet" are equivalent.
    • A sheet of paper measuring eight and one-half inches wide by eleven inches high is a popular item in commerce.
    • Paper is designated “20 pound” if a stack (ream) of 500 sheets 22 inches by 17 inches weighs 20 pounds.
    Synonyms:
    page
  3. A flat metal pan, often without raised edge, used for baking.
    • Place the rolls on the cookie sheet, edges touching, and bake for 10-11 minutes.
  4. A thin, flat piece or layer of solid material.
    • The glazer cut several panes from a large sheet of glass.
    • A sheet of that new silicon stuff is as good as a sheet of tinfoil to keep food from sticking in the baking pan.
  5. A broad, flat expanse or covering of a material on a surface.
    • Mud froze on the road in a solid sheet, then more rain froze into a sheet of ice on top of the mud!
  6. An expanse of something.
    • […] heavy sheets of rain with heavy gusts at N.E.; […]1855, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, page 514
    • ... sheets of fire could be seen. The air became intensely hot and they knew that the forest-fire was upon them.1908, Pillar of Fire, page 15
    Synonyms:
    blanket, coat, coating, layer
  7. A line (rope) used to adjust the trim of a sail.
    • To be "three sheets to the wind" is to say that a four-cornered sail is tethered only by one sheet and thus the sail is useless.
    Synonyms:
    rope
  8. (nonstandard) A sail.
    • Their folded Sheets dismiss the useless Air1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)
  9. The area of ice on which the game of curling is played.
  10. (nonstandard) A layer of veneer.
  11. (figuratively) Precipitation of such quantity and force as to resemble a thin, virtually solid wall.
  12. An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.
  13. The space in the forward or after part of a boat where there are no rowers.
    • fore sheets; stern sheets
  14. (dated) A distinct level or stage within a game.
    • The gecko moves from left to right and you must catch him when he calls. […] On the second sheet you must stand under the Gecko in the tree and jump, and on the third sheet you must catch the Gecko's friend.1983, "Program Printout: Gecko" (in Sinclair User, issue 21, page 95)
    • If you land safely you will gain 30 extra points and move to the next sheet.1984 February, Sinclair Programs

Verb

sheet (third-person singular simple present sheets, present participle sheeting, simple past and past participle sheeted)

  1. (transitive) To cover or wrap with cloth, or paper, or other similar material.
    • Remember to sheet the floor before you start painting.
    • Yea, like a stag, when snow the pasture sheets, / The barks of trees thou browsed'st.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  2. (transitive) To form into sheets.
  3. (intransitive, or other precipitation) To pour heavily.
    • We couldn't go out because the rain was sheeting down all day long.
  4. To trim a sail using a sheet.

Proper noun capitalized: Sheet

Sheet

  1. A village and civil parish in East Hampshire district, Hampshire, England, previously in Petersfield parish (OS grid ref SU7524).
  2. A small village in Ludford parish, next to Ludlow, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SO5374).

Also used as

sheet is also the euphemistic form of shit.

sheet meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog and Arabic

sheet in Hindi

sheet of paper
पत्र patra, चद्दर caddar
thin, flat layer of solid material
पत्ती pattī

sheet in Bengali

sheet of paper
পাত pat, চাদর cador

sheet in Tagalog

rope to adjust a sail
laskuta

sheet in Arabic

sheet of paper
وَرَقَة waraqa, وَرَق waraq
More languagesFewer languages
sheet in Thai
แผ่น pɛ̀n
sheet in Vietnamese
tờ
sheet in Myanmar
အရွက် a.rwak, အချပ် a.hkyap

Examples of sheet in a sentence

  • If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me / In one of those same sheets.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies...
  • ... sheets of light which appear to be formed by a source at one location for horizontal sheets and another location for vertical sheets .1988, A Twin-mirrored Galvanometer Laser Light Sheet Generator:
  • Heavy sheets of rain dwindled to a slow, quiet drizzle as she pulled the car toward the front door of her store.2020 October 26, Zoey Blair, The Cadence of Secrets, Rockville Publishing, →ISBN:
  • What distinguishes Eskimo Eddie from the others is that it has two totally different sheets in the game. […] In the first sheet, Frogger style, you have to rescue Percy penguin from Growler the bear.1984, Chris Passey, Matthew Uffindell, “Run It Again”, in Crash, number 4:

All 40 example sentences with sheet

Synonyms of sheet

All synonyms of sheet

Forms of sheet

Noun
pluralsheets
Verb
third-person singular presentsheets
present participlesheeting
past participlesheeted
pastsheeted

Plural of sheet: sheets

Origin of sheet

From Middle English schete; partly from Old English sċīete (“a sheet, a piece of linen cloth”); partly from Old English sċēata (“a corner, angle; the lower corner of a sail, sheet”); and Old English sċēat (“a corner, angle”); all from Proto-Germanic *skautijǭ, *skautaz (“corner, wedge, lap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to throw, shoot, pursue, rush”). Cognate with North Frisian skut (“the fold of a garment, lap, coattail”), West Frisian skoat (“sheet; sail; lap”), Dutch schoot (“the fold of a garment, lap, sheet”), German Low German Schote (“a line from the foot of a sail”), German Schoß (“the fold of a garment, lap”), Danish skød (“lap, skirt”), Icelandic skaut (“the corner of a cloth, a line from the foot of a sail, the skirt or sleeve of a garment, a hood”), Norwegian skaut (“headdress”), Swedish sköt (“sheet”).

A minced oath of shit.

From Old English sceat (“corner”).

Words formed from sheet

Phrases with sheet

112 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sheet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sheet

What does sheet mean?
Sheet means a thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.
What is sheet in Hindi?
Sheet in Hindi is पत्र (patra), चद्दर (caddar), पत्ती (pattī). See Sheet meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sheet in a sentence?
If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me / In one of those same sheets.
What part of speech is sheet?
Sheet can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sheet?
Sheet is pronounced /ʃiːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of sheet?
The plural of sheet is sheets.

Words near sheet in the dictionary

  1. sheesha
  2. sheesham
  3. sheeshas
  4. Sheesley
  5. Sheesleys
  6. sheet
  7. sheet anchor
  8. sheet anchors
  9. sheet bend
  10. sheet bends
  11. sheet cake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheet (page history and authors); Sheet (page history and authors). 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: En-uk-sheet.ogg, En-us-sheet.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sheet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.