sketch

American  

[skech] / skɛtʃ /

noun

• sketches
  plural

1. a simply or hastily executed drawing or painting, especially a preliminary one, giving the essential features without the details.

2. a rough design, plan, or draft, as of a book.

   Synonyms:

   outline

3. a brief or hasty outline of facts, occurrences, etc..

   a sketch of his life.

4. a short, usually descriptive, essay, history, or story.

5. a short play or slight dramatic performance, as one forming part of a vaudeville program.

   Synonyms:

   routine, act, skit

---

verb (used with object)

• sketches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sketched,
  past participle,  past
• sketching
  present participle

1. to make a sketch of.

   Synonyms:

   represent, delineate, design, outline, draw

2. to set forth in a brief or general account.

   He sketched his own part in the affair.

3. Metallurgy. (in a steel mill or the like) to mark (a piece) for cutting.

verb (used without object)

• sketches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sketched,
  past participle,  past
• sketching
  present participle

1. to make a sketch or sketches.

sketch British  

/ skɛtʃ /

noun

1. a rapid drawing or painting, often a study for subsequent elaboration

2. a brief usually descriptive and informal essay or other literary composition

3. a short play, often comic, forming part of a revue

4. a short evocative piece of instrumental music, esp for piano

5. any brief outline

---

verb

1. to make a rough drawing (of)

2. to make a brief description of

Usage

What is a basic definition of sketch? A sketch is a drawing or painting that is usually made quickly and lacks finer details. Sketch is also used to mean to create a sketch of something. A sketch can also be a short dramatic performance. Sketch has a few other senses as a verb and a noun. Most artists begin with a sketch, or many sketches, before they work on what will be the final product, such as an oil painting. For example, cartoonists will often make a sketch of a new character without colors, shading, or detailed lines so they can get feedback before putting in too much effort. A painter may draw a sketch of landscape with colored pencils so they can figure out the best colors and shades that would go well together.

• Real-life examples: Many artists would be happy to draw a sketch of something for you if you pay them the right price. Police will often create a sketch of a suspect based on a witness’s description of them. You can find many early sketches of famous characters like Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob SquarePants on the internet.
• Used in a sentence: The artist made several sketches of the model before beginning his work on the elaborate portrait. 

In this same sense, sketch is used as a verb to mean to draw a sketch of something.

• Used in a sentence: I sketched a cat in my notebook during the boring lecture. 

A sketch is also a short dramatic performance, especially one that is part of a comedy show. Comedic performances that consist solely of a collection of short, humorous stories are known as sketch comedy.

• Real-life examples: Saturday Night Live, The Kids in the Hall, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Sesame Street are television programs that all use sketches.
• Used in a sentence: Chris Farley was in most of my favorite sketches from Saturday Night Live.

Synonym Usage

See depict.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sketcher
  noun
• resketch
  verb (used with object)
• sketchable
  adjective
• sketchlike
  adjective
• unsketched
  adjective
• well-sketched
  adjective
• sketchingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sketches
  plural

Participles

• sketching
  present
• sketched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sketch
  simple
• sketches
  simple
• have sketched
  perfect
• has sketched
  perfect
• am sketching
  progressive
• are sketching
  progressive
• is sketching
  progressive
• have been sketching
  perfect progressive
• has been sketching
  perfect progressive

Past

• sketched
  simple
• had sketched
  perfect
• was sketching
  progressive
• were sketching
  progressive
• had been sketching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sketch
  simple
• will have sketched
  perfect
• will be sketching
  progressive
• will have been sketching
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sketch

1660–70; < Dutch schets (noun) ≪ Italian schizzo < Latin schedium extemporaneous poem, noun use of neuter of schedius extempore < Greek schédios

Explanation

A sketch is a rough or brief outline of something. If you hand in a sketch, instead of your full paper, don't expect to get a very high grade! The word sketch can be used when talking about something visual, particularly a drawing. An artist might sketch a friend in an hour, and then go home and take weeks to complete the portrait. A sketch can also refer to a short verbal or narrative account. You might want to give your friend a brief sketch of what happened to you today, instead of boring her with every last detail, including the hours you spent washing and then folding your laundry.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sketch sketches sketched sketching

Joining the BBC in the 1990s, she rose to prominence as part of the team behind the broadcaster's sketch comedy, Goodness Gracious Me!

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

I’m drawn to the uncanny specificity of its suggestions, each one paired with an AI-generated sketch of myself and my loved ones actually doing those things.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

But so far, Tetlow noted, Warsh has been reluctant to even begin to sketch that out.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

Far from the solemn pomp of the Vatican, nestled under the arcades of the mountain town of Santarcangelo di Romagna, a tailor clad all in black leaned over his sketch.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

I sketch me and Jay, two feet south of DeShon.

From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Herzen’s character sketches and aperçus amount to an intellectual and political history of Russia and Western Europe in the first two-thirds of the 19th century.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

The rock art which the Lost Land Bridge Project has uncovered includes engravings on the cave walls, paintings in ochre and charcoal and line sketches indented into clay and earth by fingertips.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Ullom has a few silly sketches on YouTube, and even scored a partial investment from a subscriber, but he hasn’t posted on the platform in more than five years.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Following “All That,” she appeared on “Sesame Street” across three episodes in twin-themed sketches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

The sketches will be easy; the chem stuff, not so much.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

But in an “ideas forum” at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in July he sketched out some basics for what he calls “Cuba Day Zero: Stabilization, Reconstruction and the Path to Investment.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Thatcher, though, was far and away the best part of both films, bringing a striking depth to her thinly sketched characters.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

According to Terekh, the first ideas for what would become the FP-1 drone were sketched on a napkin in their favourite restaurant in late 2022.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

He sketched an idea on the back of his nine-year-old daughter's homework, he says, and soon showed it to an architect, partly expecting him to "laugh me out of the room".

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

The natural history of her life, sketched out, because nothing means as much until it has vanished.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

Hoge spent a week holed up in a conference room with Moderna’s top chemical engineer, sketching designs and estimating the cost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

Spence is already sketching out the contours of a bank-wide contest, likely in the fall, where different regions will nominate their champions to compete in a final round of taste-testing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

In her song Wi$h Li$t, from her last album, Swift fantasised about settling down with Kelce, sketching out an idyllic future in which they have "a couple kids" and "a driveway with a basketball hoop".

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

Partis was also sketching the heron as he watched.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

Colin sketched possible new concepts and explained the math to Lindsey, who made suggestions and watched his sketching.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

Related Words

• account
• blueprint
• cartoon
• chart
• copy
• depiction
• description
• illustration
• likeness
• painting
• picture
• piece
• portrayal
• summary
• version
• vignette