ska
/skɑː/noun
ska is spelled S-K-A: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ska means “A style of Jamaican dance music originating in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean calypso and mento with American jazz and rhythm and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ska?
| Letters | 3: S-K-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 27,150th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ska?
Ska appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ska?
- /skɑː/
Ska has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ska.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ska
Sounds like: scar (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ska?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ska.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ask, aks, kas.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does ska mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A style of Jamaican dance music originating in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean calypso and mento with American jazz and rhythm and blues; it was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.
noun
- 1
Initialism of Square Kilometer Array.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ska in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense style of Jamaican dance music originating in the late 1950s:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ska |
| German | Ska |
| Portuguese | ska |
| Spanish | ska |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ska come from?
Origin uncertain. Probably imitative of the crisp guitar sound; other suggestions include a contraction of “skavoovie” (a word invented and used by musician Cluett Johnson), or of “speed polka”.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).