sketch
UK/ˈskɛt͡ʃ/
More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈsket͡ʃ/
sketch verb: to make a brief, basic drawing.
Verb
sketch (third-person singular simple present sketches, present participle sketching, simple past and past participle sketched)
- To make a brief, basic drawing.
- I usually sketch with a pen rather than a pencil.
- To describe briefly and with very few details.
- He sketched the accident, sticking to the facts as they had happened.
Noun
sketch (plural sketches)
- A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
- Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.[…]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
- Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for...2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106
- A rough design, plan, or draft, as a rough draft of a book.
- Synonyms:
- croquis
- A brief description of a person or account of an incident; a general presentation or outline.
- I have to write a character sketch for a novel study.
- Synonyms:
- pen picture, pen portrait
- A brief musical composition or theme, especially for the piano.
- Synonyms:
- skit
- A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or short story.
- Synonyms:
- skit
- An amusing person.
- A lookout; vigilant watch for something.
- to keep sketch
- A humorous newspaper article summarizing political events, making heavy use of metaphor, paraphrase and caricature.
- A very capable journalist, he wrote the Parliamentary sketch for the Pall Mall and the Westminster Gazette for several years.1901, Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality
- The Daily Telegraph sketch concentrated on the Bishop's attack and included rebutting remarks from Lord Longford, describing the attack as monumentally unfair because Mr. Cook could not reply.1978, Robin Callender Smith, Press law, Sweet and Maxwell
- A formal specification of a mathematical structure or a data type described in terms of a graph and diagrams (and cones (and cocones)) on it. It can be implemented by means of “models”, which are functors which are graph homomorphisms from the formal specification to categories such that the diagrams become commutative, the cones become limiting (i.e., products), the cocones become colimiting (i.e., sums).
Adjective
sketch (comparative more sketch, superlative most sketch)
- Sketchy, shady, questionable.
- You call at 9 am on a Saturday, lucky I'm even awake. [...] Then expect me to pick you up at a gas station near a loony bin, that's sketch. I don't even want to ask what you're doing.2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 28
- Fascist or with right-wing or neo-Nazi ties; NSBM.
sketch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sketch in Hindi
- स्केच करना
sketch in Tamil
- quick freehand drawing
- வரைப்பேனா varaippēṉā
sketch in Marathi
- to sketch, outline, rule )
- आखणे ākhṇe
sketch in Urdu
- sketch, outline
- رسم rasm
More languagesFewer languages
- sketch in Bengali
- চিত্র citro
- sketch in Telugu
- గీయు gīyu
- sketch in Malayalam
- അപൂർണ്ണമായ വര, ബാഹ്യരേഖാചിത്രം, സ്ഥൂലലേഖനം
- sketch in Kannada
- ಅಂಕನೆ aṅkane
- sketch in Punjabi
- ਰੇਖਾ ਚਿੱਤਰ rekhā cittar
- sketch in Gujarati
- સ્કેચ કરવા માટે, સ્કેચ કરવા
- sketch in Odia
- ସ୍କେଚ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ସ୍କେଚ୍ କରିବାକୁ
- sketch in Sanskrit
- सूत्र sū́tra
- sketch in Nepali
- स्केच गर्न
- sketch in Arabic
- رَسْم تَقْرِيبِيّ rasm taqrībiyy, رَسِيمَة rasīma
- sketch in Indonesian
- sketsa
- sketch in Thai
- งานร่าง ngaan-râang
- sketch in Vietnamese
- phác thảo, phác hoạ
Examples of sketch in a sentence
- I knocked off a couple of quick sketches before the design meeting.
- The awkward and agitated customer began to sketch them out a bit.
- I sketched out the trees and the lake before adding texture and colour to the scene.
Synonyms of sketch
Forms of sketch
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sketches |
| present participle | sketching |
| past participle | sketched |
| past | sketched |
| alternative form (archaic) | scetch |
| Noun | |
| plural | sketches |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more sketch |
| superlative | most sketch |
Origin of sketch
From Dutch schets or German Skizze, from Italian schizzo, from Latin schedium, from Ancient Greek σχέδιος (skhédios, “made suddenly, off-hand”), from σχεδόν (skhedón, “near, nearby”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “to hold”). Compare scheme.
Words formed from sketch
Phrases with sketch
Words that rhyme with sketch
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about sketch
- What does sketch mean?
- Sketch means to make a brief, basic drawing.
- What is sketch in Hindi?
- Sketch in Hindi is स्केच करना. See Sketch meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sketch?
- Sketch can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce sketch?
- Sketch is pronounced /ˈskɛt͡ʃ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of sketch?
- The past tense of sketch is sketched.
Words near sketch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sketch (page history and authors); sketch (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); आखणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); رسم (Urdu) (page history and authors); চিত্র (Bengali) (page history and authors); గీయు (Telugu) (page history and authors); sketch (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಅಂಕನೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਰੇਖਾ ਚਿੱਤਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); sketch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sketch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); सूत्र (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); sketch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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:
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Cite this entry: “sketch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sketch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.