by the skin of one's teeth
"by-the-skin-of-one-s-teeth" is a 20-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“by the skin of one's teeth” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 26
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.
Corpus desk
Index EN-by-the-skin-of-one-s-tee · by the skin of one's teeth · English
by the skin of one's teeth · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 26 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | by the skin of one's teeth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 26 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “by the skin of one's teeth” in English
Rare enough to double-check
by the skin of one's teeth is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for by the skin of one's teeth, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: * From Job 19.20. "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth." The correct English form is by the skin of one's teeth, spelled B-Y- -T-H-E- -S-K-I-N- -O-F- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-E-E-T-H.
Definition
- 1Barely; closely; by a narrow margin; with nothing to spare.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how by the skin of one's teeth appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I passed the test by the skin of my teeth.
I would have liked to have hung around in Birmingham, but my connections are tight owing to a points failure, and I make the CrossCountry Class 170 to Derby by the skin of my teeth.
Etymology
* From Job 19.20. "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.