sky

/skaɪ/

sky noun: 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. Also the ellipsis of sky blue.

Image: Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sky (plural skies)

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.
- For beſides the groues, / The skyes, the fountaines, euery region neare / Seeme all one mutuall cry. I neuer heard / So muſicall a diſcord, ſuch ſweete thunder.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]
Synonyms:

blue, firmament, heaven, lift, welkin
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.
- We’re not sure how long the cloudy skies will last.
(archaic, literary, poetic) 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.
- Now am I dead, now am I fled, my ſoule is in the sky.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]
(theoretical physics) The set of all lightlike lines (or directions) passing through a given point in space-time.

Synonyms:

celestial sphere
(informal, obsolete, rare) In an art gallery: the upper rows of pictures that cannot easily be seen; also, the place where such pictures are hung.
(obsolete) A cloud.

Verb

sky (third-person singular simple present skies, present participle skying, simple past and past participle skied or skyed)

(informal, transitive) To drink (a beverage) from a container without one's lips touching the container.
(dated, informal, transitive) 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.1883 December, M[ariana] G[riswold] Van Rensselaer, “George Fuller”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume V (New Series; volume XXVII overall), number 2, New York, N.Y.: The Century...
Antonyms:

floor
(dated, slang, transitive) 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...1894, C[ornelis] Stoffel, “Preface”, in Studies in English, Written and Spoken: For the Use of Continental Students (First Series), Zutphen, Gelderland, Netherlands: W. J. Thieme & Co.; London: Luzac...
(transitive) To clear (a high jump bar, hurdle, etc.) by a large margin.
(transitive) 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.2009 September 8, Geoff Baker, “Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels: 09/08 game thread”, in The Seattle Times, Seattle, Wash.: The Seattle Times Company, published 29 November 2012, →ISSN, →OCLC...
(transitive) 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.1977, Tom Stoppard, 42:41 from the start, in Professional Foul
- Van Persie [i.e., Robin van Persie] skied a penalty, conceded by Gary Caldwell who was sent off, and also hit the post before scoring his third with a shot at the near post.2011 January 22, Tim Love, “Arsenal 3 – 0 Wigan”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2021
(obsolete, transitive) 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.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “The Wreck of the ‘Flying Scud’”, in The Wrecker, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 146
(intransitive) To move quickly, as if by flying; to fly; also, to escape, to flee (especially by airplane).
(intransitive) To hit, kick, or throw a ball extremely high.
(intransitive) To raise an oar too high above the water.

Noun (2)

sky (plural skies)

(UK, obsolete, slang, Westminster School) A disagreeable person; an enemy.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Sky

Sky

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.1981, William Boyd, On the Yankee Station, Hamilton,, →ISBN, page 17

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Sky

Sky

(obsolete) 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.1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson

Also used as

sky is also the ellipsis of sky blue.

sky meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sky in Hindi

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: आकाश ākāś, अम्बर ambar, गगन gagan, नभ nabh, आभ ābh, आसमान āsmān
part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time — see also firmament: आकाश ākāś, गगन gagan, अम्बर ambar, व्योम vyom
the abode of God or the gods, etc. — see also heaven: आकाश ākāś, गगन gagan, देवलोक devlok, स्वर्ग svarg, अम्बर ambar

sky in Tamil

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: ஆகாயம் ākāyam

sky in Marathi

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: आकाश ākāś

sky in Urdu

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: آسْمان āsmān, آکاش ākāś, گَگَن gagan, اَمْبَر ambar
part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time — see also firmament: آسْمان āsmān, آکاش ākāś
the abode of God or the gods, etc. — see also heaven: آسْمان āsmān, آکاش ākāś

More languagesFewer languages

sky in Bengali: আকাশ akaś
sky in Telugu: ఆకాశము ākāśamu, గగనము gaganamu
sky in Malayalam: ആകാശം ākāśaṁ, മാനം mānaṁ
sky in Kannada: ಆಕಾಶ ākāśa, ಗಗನ gagana
sky in Punjabi: ਅਸਮਾਨ asamān, ਆਕਾਸ਼ ākāś
sky in Gujarati: આકાશ ākāś
sky in Odia: ଆକାଶ ākāśa
sky in Sanskrit: दिव diva, आकाश ākāśa
sky in Sinhala: අහස ahasa, ආකාශය ākāśaya
sky in Assamese: আকাশ akax
sky in Nepali: आकाश ākāś
sky in Pashto: هسک hask, آسمان āsmān
sky in Tagalog: kalangitan, langit
sky in Arabic: سَمَاء samāʔ, سما samā, سَمَاوَات samāwāt
sky in Malay: langit
sky in Indonesian: langit
sky in Persian: آسْمان âsmân, آسِمان âsemân, سِپِهْر sepehr, جُو jow
sky in Thai: ฟ้า fáa, ท้องฟ้า tɔ́ɔng-fáa, สวรรค์ sà-wǎn
sky in Vietnamese: trời, thời tiết, thiên đường
sky in Myanmar: ကောင်းကင် kaung:kang, မိုး mui:
Dhivehi: އުޑު uḍu

Examples of sky in a sentence

[A] Nobler Sir, ne're liu'd / 'Twixt sky and ground.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
Through the large Convex of the Azure Sky, / (For thither Nature caſts our common Eye) / Fierce Meteors ſhoot their arbitrary Light, / And Comets march with lawleſs Horror bright; […]1700, Mat[thew] Prior, “Carmen Seculare, for the Year 1700. To the King.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […]...
A length of Ocean and unbounded sky, / Which ſcarce the Sea-fowl in a year o'erfly […]1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 120...
There is madness about thee, and joy divine / In that song of thine; / Up with me, up with me, high and high, / To thy banqueting-place in the sky!1807, William Wordsworth, “To a Sky-lark”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, page...

All 40 example sentences with sky

Synonyms of sky

Antonyms

floor

All synonyms and antonyms of sky

Forms of sky

Noun
plural	skies
alternative form	skie
Verb
third-person singular present	skies
present participle	skying
past participle	skied
past	skied
past participle	skyed
past	skyed

Plural of sky: skies

Origin of sky

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.

From Volsci (“a tribe who opposed the Romans”).

From sky. As a surname, a translation of German Himmel and an anglicization of Ashkenazic surnames ending in -sky.

Phrases with sky

63 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sky

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sky

What does sky mean?: Sky means 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.
What is sky in Hindi?: Sky in Hindi is आकाश (ākāś), अम्बर (ambar), गगन (gagan). See Sky meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sky in a sentence?: [A] Nobler Sir, ne're liu'd / 'Twixt sky and ground.
What part of speech is sky?: Sky can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sky?: Sky is pronounced /skaɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of sky?: The plural of sky is skies.

Words near sky in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sky (page history and authors); Sky (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-sky.ogg, En-us-sky.ogg.

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