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PlainSpell

skew

/skju/verb, adjective, adverb, noun

skew is spelled S-K-E-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,556th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, skew means “To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in skew?

Letters4: S-K-E-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.0 times per million words; the 28,556th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 skew?

Skew appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,556th 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 skew?

  • UK /skjuː/
  • British /skjʉw/
  • US /skju/

Skew 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: En-us-skew.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with skew?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as skew from its last stressed vowel (/u/):

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).

Forms of skew

  • skews present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • skewing participle, present
  • skewed participle, past
  • skewer comparative
  • more skew comparative
  • skewest superlative
  • most skew superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does skew mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.

  2. 2

    To cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical.

  3. 3

    To bias or distort in a particular direction.

    A disproportionate number of female subjects in the study group skewed the results.

  4. 4

    To hurl or throw.

  5. 5

    To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely.

  6. 6

    To jump back or sideways in fear or surprise; to shy, as a horse.

  7. 7

    To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously.

adjective

  1. 1

    Neither parallel nor perpendicular to a certain line; askew.

    a skew arch

  2. 2

    Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel.

  3. 3

    Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean.

noun

  1. 1

    Something that has an oblique or slanted position.

  2. 2

    An oblique or sideways movement.

  3. 3

    A squint or sidelong glance.

  4. 4

    A kind of wooden vane or cowl in a chimney which revolves according to the direction of the wind and prevents smoking.

  5. 5

    A piece of rock lying in a slanting position and tapering upwards which overhangs a working-place in a mine and is liable to fall.

  6. 6

    A bias or distortion in a particular direction.

  7. 7

    A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times.

  8. 8

    A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness.

  9. 9

    A stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, etc., cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place; a skew-corbel.

  10. 10

    ScotlandThe coping of a gable.

  11. 11

    obsoleteOne of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.

  12. 12

    A thick drizzling rain or driving mist.

adverb

  1. 1

    rareAskew, obliquely; awry.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Skew in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchincliner (to form or shape in an oblique way), biaiser (to bias or distort in a particular direction), sursauter (to jump back or sideways in fear or surprise), loucher (to look at obliquely), gauche, oblique (neither parallel nor at right angles to a…)
Germanverfälschen (to form or shape in an oblique way), ablenken (to bias or distort in a particular direction), schief, schräg, windschief (neither parallel nor at right angles to a…)
Portuguesedistorcer, enviesar (to bias or distort in a particular direction), assimétrico (neither parallel nor at right angles to a…)
Spanishasimétrico, oblicuo (neither parallel nor at right angles to a…)

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 skew come from?

The verb is derived from Middle English skeuen, skewe, skewen (“to run at an angle or obliquely; to escape”), from Old Northern French escuer [and other forms], variants of Old French eschuer, eschever, eschiver (“to escape, flee; to avoid”) (modern French esquiver (“to dodge (a blow), duck; to elude, evade; to slip away; to sidestep”)), from Frankish *skiuhan (“to dread; to avoid, shun”), from Proto-Germanic *skiuhijaną (“to frighten”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after skew