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Added 9 October 2026

skein

/skeɪn/ noun

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about skein at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter.
A thing resembling a skein (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) of thread, yarn, etc. The membrane of a fish ovary. A group of wildfowl (for example, geese or swans) in flight.
The membrane of a fish ovary.

verb

To weave or wind (thread, yarn, etc.) into a skein (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).
To intertwine or weave (something) with another thing.

noun

A thin strip of an osier (“long, pliable twig from a plant, usually a willow”) used in basketmaking.
A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle of a wagon.

Origin

The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound”), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”). The verb is derived from noun. cognates * Irish scáinne (“skein, clew”)

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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