Sky Meaning

/skaɪ/
A1

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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nounThe 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.

nounWith 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.

Do you ever dream about flying through the sky?
The sky promises fair weather.
The sky suddenly went dark and it started to rain.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the storm passed, the ____ cleared and turned a brilliant blue.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ was a brilliant shade of blue with only a few fluffy white clouds floating by.

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.

"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]:
"His wearie ghoſt aſſoyld from fleſhly band, / Did not as others wont, directly fly / Vnto her reſt in Plutoes grieſly land, / Ne into ayre did vaniſh preſently, / Ne chaunged was into a ſtarre in sky: […]" — 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 40:
"[I]f you doe not all ſhew like guilt twoo pences to mee, and I in the cleere skie of Fame, ore-ſhine you as much as the full moone doth the cindars of the element, (which ſhew like pinnes heads to her) beleeue not the worde of the noble: […]" — c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
"[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, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 396, column 1:
"I went with some of my relations to Court, to shew them his Maᵗⁱᵉˢ cabinet and closset of rarities; […] Here I saw […] amongst the clocks, one that shew'd the rising and setting of the Sun in yᵉ Zodiaq, the Sunn represented by a face and raies of gold, upon an azure skie, observing yᵉ diurnal and annual motion, rising and setting behind a landscape of hills, the work of our famous Fromantel; and severall other rarities." — 1660 November 10 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 1 November 1660]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 327:

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CEFR Practice Quiz
After the storm passed, the ____ cleared and turned a brilliant blue.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ was a brilliant shade of blue with only a few fluffy white clouds floating by.

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