Noun
They found the fossil skeleton of a mastodon.
He hung a plastic skeleton on the door for Halloween.
She was a skeleton after her illness.
Only the charred skeleton of the house remained after the fire.
We saw a skeleton of the report before it was published.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Where their radiating spines converge, urchins have delicate, bulbous skeletons with holes for wriggly tube feet and bumps where spines attach.—Lisa S. Gardiner, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Aug. 2024 The skeletons of corals that can grow for centuries allowed Henley and his coauthors to look into the past.—Justine Calma, The Verge, 7 Aug. 2024
Adjective
Six weeks after his birth, Rivera and Dorsey gave the first glimpse at their newborn by posting a picture of him on Instagram in a skeleton Halloween costume.—Ariana Quihuiz, Peoplemag, 29 June 2023 See all Example Sentences for skeleton
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skeleton.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
New Latin, from Greek, neuter of skeletos dried up; akin to Greek skellein to dry up, sklēros hard and perhaps to Old English sceald shallow
: a firm supporting or protecting structure or framework of a living thing
especially: a framework made of bone or sometimes cartilage that supports the soft tissues and protects the internal organs of a vertebrate (as a fish or human being) compare endoskeleton, exoskeleton
2
: a very thin person or animal
3
: something forming a structural framework
skeleton
2 of 2adjective
1
: of, consisting of, or resembling a skeleton
a skeleton hand
2
: consisting of the smallest possible number of persons who can get a job done
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