sky

American  

[skahy] / skaɪ /

noun

• skies
  plural

1. the region of the clouds or the upper air; the upper atmosphere of the earth.

   airplanes in the sky; cloudy skies.

2. the heavens or firmament, appearing as a great arch or vault.

3. the supernal or celestial heaven.

   They looked to the sky for help.

4. the climate.

   the sunny skies of Italy.

5. Obsolete. a cloud.

---

verb (used with object)

• skies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• skied,
  past participle,  past
• skyed,
  past participle,  past
• skying
  present participle

1. Informal. to raise, throw, or hit aloft or into the air.

2. Informal. to hang (a painting) high on a wall, above the line of vision.

verb phrase

1. sky up (of prey, when flushed) to fly straight upward.

idioms

1. to the skies, with lavishness or enthusiasm; extravagantly: Also to the sky

   to praise someone to the skies.

2. out of a / the clear sky, without advance notice or warning; abruptly: Also out of athe clear blue sky

   An old beau phoned her out of a clear sky.

sky British  

/ skaɪ /

noun

1. (sometimes plural) the apparently dome-shaped expanse extending upwards from the horizon that is characteristically blue or grey during the day, red in the evening, and black at night

2. outer space, as seen from the earth

3. (often plural) weather, as described by the appearance of the upper air

   sunny skies

4. the source of divine power; heaven

5. informal the highest level of attainment

   the sky's the limit

6. highly; extravagantly

---

verb

1. rowing to lift (the blade of an oar) too high before a stroke

2. informal (tr) to hit (a ball) high in the air

sky Scientific  

/ skī /

1. The atmosphere, as seen from a given point on the Earth's surface. The sky appears to be blue because the wavelengths associated with blue light are scattered more easily than those that are associated with the other colors.

---

sky More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing sky

• blow sky-high
• out of a clear blue sky
• pie in the sky
• reach for the sky

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• skyless
  adjective
• skylike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• skies
  plural

Participles

• skying
  present
• skied
  past
• skyed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sky
  simple
• skies
  simple
• have skied
  perfect
• have skyed
  perfect
• has skied
  perfect
• has skyed
  perfect
• am skying
  progressive
• are skying
  progressive
• is skying
  progressive
• have been skying
  perfect progressive
• has been skying
  perfect progressive

Past

• skied
  simple
• skyed
  simple
• had skied
  perfect
• had skyed
  perfect
• was skying
  progressive
• were skying
  progressive
• had been skying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sky
  simple
• will have skied
  perfect
• will have skyed
  perfect
• will be skying
  progressive
• will have been skying
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sky

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English, from Old Norse skȳ “cloud,” cognate with Old English scēo “cloud”

Explanation

Want to see the sky? Go outside and look up! That’s assuming you’re not on Mars, of course. Everything you see above the surface of the Earth is the sky. Astronomers use the term "celestial sphere" for the sky. It's the space that includes everything we can see from our earthbound perspective, including clouds, stars, the sun, and the moon. If your uncle takes you out for ice cream and says, "The sky's the limit!" he means that there is no limit at all—you can order anything, even an enormous banana split.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sky skies skied skyed skying

He only paused to take photos of the night sky and rest for a few hours in Bordeaux.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

Manchester City's new home kit uses a sky blue gradient, with a print inside the neck, which reads, "Not Your Typical City".

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

The Chile-based observatory debuted last June and captures exceptionally detailed views of the sky with the world's largest digital camera.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

With black smoke belching high into the sky, Lobga staggers some 90 seconds before collapsing in flames and a U.N. security guard rushes over blasting an extinguisher.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

But while the rest of us gazed out at long rows of poplars in their bright June green, Mama’s eyes never left the sky.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

The findings, published in the journal Nature, external, were made possible by the Inouye Solar Telescope - a facility built on a high peak in Hawaii, where clear blue skies are free of dust.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Aug. 12 and 13: The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak under exceptionally dark skies.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

When these materials slam into Earth's magnetic shield, they can knock out satellites, threaten astronauts -- and create colourful auroras in the skies of northern and southern latitudes.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

“Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again,” is how that chipper Flapper-era song goes, and Citadel Securities appears to be singing it with a bullish call for stocks on Tuesday.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

They migrated down from the north in huge flocks, confusing the skies and crowding the clouds before landing on the blue willows in our valley.

From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate

Atkinson eventually skied Jamieson, leaving Nathan Smith to take the last three for 6-70 - the third-best figures by a New Zealander in a Test at Lord's.

From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026

Horning, an 82-year-old real estate mogul who skied in jeans, buys his shirts at Costco and cuts his own hair, has his own name for what Telluride has become.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026

And there was joy in his face as he skied down the final descent, poles clutched in one hand, his other fist raised in triumph as he came through the line.

From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026

If you’ve ever skied in the afternoon light, when it’s difficult to see any articulation in the slope, just white everywhere you look, you can understand how having those points of reference would be helpful.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2026

We skied through small frosty woods and over the hillocks and fields of the disputed valley.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

In these fancies Cornelia even had them come to New York, to see her picture in position; it was not on the line, of course, and yet it was not skyed.

From The Coast of Bohemia by Howells, William Dean

In the Salon that year six thousand pictures were offered, and only two thousand accepted, and many of these were "skyed."

From Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

The picture was received, but was "skyed," that is, placed so high that nobody could well see it.

From Lives of Girls Who Became Famous by Bolton, Sarah Knowles

The third was skyed, but he was admitted to membership.

From Twelve Men by Dreiser, Theodore

Making secure her place; Guiding her surely as the worlds through space Do laws sidereal; edicts, thunder-lit, Of skyed eternity, in splendor borne On planetary wings of night and morn.

From An Ode Read August 15, 1907, at the dedication of the monument erected at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in commemoration of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the year sixteen hundred and twenty-three by Cawein, Madison Julius

Jayasuriya edged Matthew Potts to the juggling Brook at second slip, Vishwa Fernando was palpably lbw to Woakes and Chandimal last out by skying Potts to sub fielder Harry Singh at deep cover.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2024

Mexico pushed and pushed, skying one over the goal early in stoppage time among other attempts that caused sighs, and then at five minutes beyond 90 the whole thing collapsed with a rare Saudi counterattack.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2022

Borick, meanwhile, is anywhere and everywhere at all times — diving on the ground for a dig, skying for a kill, delivering a picturesque set or dropping in an ace.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2022

He had 105 yards on six catches, with two receiving touchdowns, by either gliding uncovered up the seams or skying over defenders.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2021

He barked a warning, and the sharp signal went around from hillock to hillock; and in half a minute all the big, babyish eyes were fixed upon the approach of the skying marauder.

From Children of the Wild by Roberts, Charles George Douglas, Sir