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PlainSpell

skirt

/skɚt/noun, verb

skirt is spelled S-K-I-R-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, skirt means “A separate article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower torso and part of the legs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of skirt is skirts.

How many letters and syllables are in skirt?

Letters5: S-K-I-R-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing9.1 times per million words; the 7,553rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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 skirt?

Skirt appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd 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 skirt?

  • UK /skɜːt/
  • US /skɚt/
  • /skɪɾt/

Skirt 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-uk-skirt.ogg, En-us-skirt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with skirt?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as skirt from its last stressed vowel (/əɹt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: stirk.

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 skirt

  • skirts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • skirting participle, present
  • skirted participle, past

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

What does skirt mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A separate article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower torso and part of the legs.

  2. 2

    A similar part of a dress or robe, etc., that hangs below the waist.

  3. 3

    A loose edging to any part of a dress.

    A narrow lace, or a small skirt of fine ruffled linen, which runs along the upper part of the stays before, and crosses the breast, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty piece.

  4. 4

    A petticoat.

  5. 5

    derogatoryslangA woman.

  6. 6

    UKcolloquialWomen collectively, in a sexual context.

  7. 7

    UKcolloquialSexual intercourse with a woman.

  8. 8

    A border; edge; margin; extreme part of anything.

verb

  1. 1

    To be on or form the border of.

    The plain was skirted by rows of trees.

  2. 2

    To move around or along the border of; to avoid the center of.

    skirt a mountain

  3. 3

    To cover with a skirt; to surround.

  4. 4

    To avoid or ignore (something); to manage to avoid (something or a problem); to skate by (something).

    Near-synonym: circumvent

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

Skirt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjupe (article of clothing)
GermanRock (article of clothing), Weiberrock (slang: woman), Saum (border, edge, margin), umgehen, umrunden (to be on or from the border of)
Portuguesesaia (article of clothing), rabo-de-saia (slang: woman), borda (border, edge, margin), rodear, contornar, beirar (to be on or from the border of)
Spanishfalda, enaguas, pollera, saya (article of clothing)

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 skirt come from?

From Middle English scyrt, skirt, skyrte, skyrthe, skyrtte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“apron; skirt”), from *skurtaz (“short; deficient”), from *skertaną (“to cut off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off; to divide”). Doublet of shirt.

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

What to look up after skirt