skift
/skɪft/noun, verb
skift is spelled S-K-I-F-T: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 37 million words in written English, the 187,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, skift means “Synonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of skift is skifts.
How many letters and syllables are in skift?
| Letters | 5: S-K-I-F-T |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 37 million words; the 187,122nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is skift?
Skift appears about once in every 37 million words in written English, the 187,122nd 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 skift?
- /skɪft/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-skift.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of skift
- skifts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- skifting participle, present
- skifted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does skift mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
ScotlandSynonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”).
Last night we had a little skift of snow.
verb
- 1
Synonym of skiff (“fall lightly or briefly, and lightly cover the ground”).
[…] Violent gusts of wind came in rapid succession down the sound of Kilbrannan ; and a skifting rain, flung fitfully but fiercely from the huge black clouds as they hurried along before the tempest that ...
- 2
obsoleteTo shift; to move or remove.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does skift come from?
From Scots skift (“light shower of rain or snow”), related to skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”) (which see for more) and skiffle.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).