How do you use the word "sill" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "sill": Some birds alighted on the window sill. A large bird landed on the window sill.

Sill Meaning

/sɪl/

Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window.

nounA threshold; horizontal structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings, or lying on the ground, and bearing the upright portion of a frame; a sill plate.

Sentence Examples

Some birds alighted on the window sill.

A large bird landed on the window sill.

CEFR Practice Quiz

She placed the flower pot on the window ____ to get sunlight.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The cat sat on the window ____, watching the birds fly by outside.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English sille, selle, sülle, from Old English syll, syl (“sill, threshold, foundation, base, basis”), from Proto-Germanic *sulī (“bar, sill”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Cognate with Scots sil, sill (“balk, beam, floor, sill”), Dutch zulle (“sill”), Low German Sull, Sülle (“threshold, ramp, sill”), German Süll, Sülle (“threshold, sill”), Danish syld (“base of a framework building”), Swedish syll (“joist, cross-tie”), Norwegian syll, Icelandic syll, sylla (“sill”). Related also to German Schwelle ( > Danish svelle), Old Norse svill, Latin silva (“wood, forest”), Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"Minor palingenetic magmas probably were generated at this time and intruded the mantling rocks in the form of small sills and apophyses […]." — 1980, Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 1119, U.S. Government Printing Office:

"The molten rock in the sills may have ignited vast reserves of shallowly buried natural gas, much like a match applied to a gas barbecue." — 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 55::

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