Ski Meaning
/skiː/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounOne of a pair of long flat runners designed for gliding over snow or water.
nounOne of a pair of long flat runners under some flying machines, used for landing.
Sentence Examples
Roy practiced very hard to get his ski instructor's license.
Tom can ski as well as his brother.
Our children want to learn to ski.
CEFR Practice Quiz
With long plastic boards attached to our boots, we ____ down the steep mountain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We plan to go to the mountains this winter to ____ on the fresh powdery snow.
Word Origin & History
From Norwegian ski, from Old Norse skíð (“stick of wood, snowshoe”), from Proto-Germanic *skīdą (“stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split”) (see also shed). Cognate with Old English sċīd (“stick of wood”) (modern shide), Old High German skit (Modern German Scheit (“log”)).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Disaster at the newly opened ski resort where hard-driving tycoon Hudson is determined to double his not insubstantial investment while his ex-wife Mia is making whoopee with one of the locals championing ecology."
— 1990, Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide, Penguin, →ISBN, page 55:
"We skied back the way we had come for about thirty minutes when I saw her. Mary was hanging upside down by the tips of her skies from a tree well."
— 2014, Inspiring Generations: 150 Years, 150 Stories in Yosemite, →ISBN, page 188:
"Yilamujiang grew up in Altay, a prefecture bordering Mongolia in far northwest Xinjiang. Chinese officials consider the region the cradle of Alpine sport, after cave paintings of hunters on skis were dated at 10,000 years old. Locals still use hand-carved wooden skis covered in a horsehide, although mostly now for the benefit of tourists."
— 2022 May 2, Adam Kilgore, Christian Shepherd, “A cauldron-lighting flashpoint one night, Dinigeer Yilamujiang was a skier the next day”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2022, Olympics:
"Townsend hare inhabit this area, particularly above the cabin, and a skier is likely to have one explode from a tree well and disappear into the whiteness as he skis by. Life is a constant bivouac for them -- they spend days huddled in tree wells during storms -- but I suspect they are as content and warm in their luxurious coats as we are in a cabin."
— 2014, Patrick Armstrong, The Log of a Snow Survey, →ISBN:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
With long plastic boards attached to our boots, we ____ down the steep mountain.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We plan to go to the mountains this winter to ____ on the fresh powdery snow.