skein
Americannoun
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a length of yarn or thread wound on a reel or swift preparatory for use in manufacturing.
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anything wound in or resembling such a coil.
a skein of hair.
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something suggestive of the twistings of a skein.
an incoherent skein of words.
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a flock of geese, ducks, or the like, in flight.
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a succession or series of similar or interrelated things.
a skein of tennis victories.
noun
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a length of yarn, etc, wound in a long coil
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something resembling this, such as a lock of hair
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a flock of geese flying Compare gaggle
Etymology
Origin of skein
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English skeyne, skayne, from Middle French escaigne; further origin unknown
Explanation
A skein is a ball of coiled yarn. If it weren’t for the skein, the world would be full of tangled messes of yarn that would take hours to untangle before you could start your knitting. Whether you use a skein (rhymes with “rain”) to keep your yarn separated and organized, or as something for your cat to play with, may be a sign of how often you knit. Skein can take on a metaphorical sense: The character Sherlock Holmes said, “There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."
Vocabulary lists containing skein
Esperanza Rising
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"Arachne"
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"Marigolds" by Eugenia Coller
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the operatic plot is a skein that sometimes entangles its colorful character and other times leaves them panting with exhaustion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
Held in the mesh of gravity and spin, a skein of quantum magnetic charge, the Muon persists, outlives its foreseeable wobble.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 5, 2022
It’s dry, with apricot and pear flavors and a skein of minerality that carries the fruit through to a long, satisfying finish.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2021
A skein of dread whorls around the narrator’s job at The Hague.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2021
At once each face in the circle turned to him as if he had gathered up their gazes into a sheaf, a skein.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
