Word.ws English Dictionary

skiffy

/ˈskɪfi/

skiffy noun: low-quality science fiction.

Noun

skiffy (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, humorous, slang, usually) Low-quality science fiction.
    • The science fiction reader sneers at fake SF, artificially produced film tie-in novels and stories, most SF films, most TV SF. This he calls sci-fi (or "skiffy")—junk no right-thinking omnivore or chronic should read, watch, or support.1984, David Hartwell, “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve”, in Age of Wonders, →ISBN, page 13
    • Many of the best new writers seem openly ashamed of their backward Skiffy nationality.1989 July, Bruce Sterling, SF Eye, number 5, page 77

Origin of skiffy

A phonetic spelling of sci-fi to convey its deliberate mispronunciation (with "sc" being read as /sk/ and "i" being read as short vowel /i/ instead of diphthong /aɪ/).

Words that rhyme with skiffy

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about skiffy

What does skiffy mean?
Skiffy means low-quality science fiction.
What part of speech is skiffy?
Skiffy is a noun.
How do you pronounce skiffy?
Skiffy is pronounced /ˈskɪfi/.

Words near skiffy in the dictionary

  1. skiffles
  2. skiffless
  3. skifflike
  4. skiffling
  5. skiffs
  6. skiffy
  7. skifield
  8. skifields
  9. skift
  10. skifted
  11. skifting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skiffy (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:

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