skit
Americannoun
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skits
plural
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a short literary piece of a humorous or satirical character.
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a short theatrical sketch or act, usually comical.
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a gibe or taunt.
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British Dialect. a joke or prank.
noun
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a brief satirical theatrical sketch
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a short satirical piece of writing
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a trick or hoax
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of skit
First recorded in 1565–75; of obscure origin
Explanation
A skit is a funny or informative short play. It's usually more fun to perform a skit about an alien invasion than a skit about workplace safety. You might watch a skit about bullying at school, and the local theater troupe may perform skits in the park for kids. In stand-up or improvisational comedy, skits are more commonly called "sketches." Skit comes from the now-obsolete Scottish skit, "a vain, frivolous, or wanton girl," which became "a satirical remark" in English, and then "a piece of light satire."
Vocabulary lists containing skit
Haiti Earthquake One-Year Report
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Conventions, Writing, and Speaking & Listening, Unit 2
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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.
See Examples For:
SK Hynix employees’ lofty standing in society got parodied in a viral “Saturday Night Live Korea” skit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
But not every Culture Clash joke or skit has been safe from criticism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
On the podcast, Danson said he’d been preparing for the skit for months, sure he was going to nail it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Mills was last seen on TV in March on a Traitors skit during Comic Relief.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
We didn’t have to be in a skit to give our best performance!
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Late-night host Conan O’Brien also amplified the persona through recurring skits, culminating in the comedic appearance by Norris himself on O’Brien’s show.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 20, 2026
Rasheed can do a pretty great British accent and boasts a relaxed and natural confidence honed from starring in his own comedy skits on YouTube.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
He gives it five stars for its "array of increasingly bonkers skits", saying that watching it "gives the sense of being wrapped in a warm, felt-based comfort blanket".
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
Only natural that his skits and videos gained traction—first hundreds of followers, then thousands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
Scores of our friends and neighbors, including some of the boys with whom I had studied Hebrew and watched the makeshift comedy skits, silently walked down the main street toward the train station.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
