Sky

How to spell sky

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sky

What does sky mean?

1. nounThe expanse of air and space seen above the earth.

Sky in a sentence

• The sky turned a deep orange as the sun set over the harbour.

• Pilots checked the sky for storm clouds before takeoff.

Where does sky come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word comes from the Old Norse 'ský', which literally meant 'cloud' rather than the open air above us. Norse settlers carried it into northern England during the Viking age, and by around the 1200s it had entered Middle English. Over time the meaning broadened from the clouds themselves to the whole expanse of air and space overhead, while the older English word 'heaven' kept the more spiritual sense. The same Norse root is distantly related to words for shadow and covering, since clouds were thought of as the cover over the earth. Because it ends in a clean, short '-y' sound, the spelling is wonderfully regular and rarely trips anyone up.

How the word is built

• sky (a single root word, from Old Norse 'ský' meaning cloud; no prefix or suffix)