# sky

> English word · Noun · IPA /skaɪ/ · frequency rank #1,968

## Definitions
1. The atmosphere above a given point, especially as visible from the surface of the Earth as the place where the sun, moon, stars, and clouds are seen.
2. With a descriptive word: the part of the sky which can be seen from a specific place or at a specific time; its climate, condition, etc.
3. Usually preceded by the: the abode of God or the gods, angels, the souls of deceased people, etc.; heaven; also, powers emanating from heaven.
4. Ellipsis of sky blue.
5. The set of all lightlike lines (or directions) passing through a given point in space-time.
6. In an art gallery: the upper rows of pictures that cannot easily be seen; also, the place where such pictures are hung.
7. A cloud.

## Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English sky (“sky; cloud; mist”), also spelled ski, skie, [and other forms], from Old Norse ský (“cloud”), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (“cloud; sky”), from *skiwô (“cloud; cloud cover, haze; sky”) (whence Old English sċēo (“cloud”) and Middle English skew (“air; sky; (rare) cloud”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”).
Partly displaced Old English heofon, which survives in the reflex heaven, still sometimes used in the sense of sky, but usually in high or poetic register.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
The English word is cognate with Old English scēo (“cloud”), Old Saxon scio, skio, skeo (“light cloud cover”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål sky (“cloud”), Old Irish ceo (“mist, fog”), Irish ceo (“mist, fog”). It is also related to Old English scūa (“shadow, darkness”), Latin obscūrus (“dark, shadowy”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “he covers”). See also hide, hose, house, hut, shoe.

## Easily confused with
- **so** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-so)
- **SS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-ss)
- **SP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sp)
- **su** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-su)
- **SM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sm)
- **SW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sw)
- **SL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sl)
- **SV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sv)
- **Sy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sy)
- **son** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-son)
- **sun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sun)
- **sub** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sub)
- **sum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sum)
- **spy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-spy)
- **sue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sue)
- **spa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-spa)
- **sox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sox)
- **sol** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sol)
- **SMS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-sms)
- **soy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sky-vs-soy)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sky