Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏙️ A tall building 🧩 A logic puzzle
skyscraper

skyscraper

1 8.6
A number puzzle on a square grid where numbers at the edge show how many buildings you can see
  • noun
  • /ˈskaɪˌskreɪpər/
  • Jargon
translation icon : puzzle de rascacielos
  • As they walked through the city, they admired the modern skyscrapers that reached toward the sky.

Examples

  • Sounds like a sideways skyscraper, doesn't it?

    Blog text (3)

  • George Oppen's "The Building of the Skyscraper," written in 1965, is a poem of type A, a perspective poem.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Yet, in the words of Oppen's poem, "The Building of the Skyscraper," Hejinian knows that "there is something to mean."

    Academic text (2010)

  • Reporter: The skyscraper...

    Volcano (1997)

  • Butt-Head reaches into a skyscraper and picks up a nice-looking woman, a lot like the one from the King Kong movie.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • >> OKAY, WELL, YOU'RE NOT WORKING ON A SKYSCRAPER.

    Beautiful Girl (2014)

  • The tall skyscraper provided a stunning view of the city from its observation deck.

  • From the street, you can see how many skyscrapers block the sunlight in the afternoon.

Surface Forms

skyscraper singular
skyscrapers plural

Morphology

skyscraper = sky + scraper (semi-transparent) = sky + scraper

The compound components are clear, but the sense 'a specific logic puzzle' is a specialized, metaphorical extension requiring domain knowledge.

Etymology

Skyscraper as the puzzle name comes from tall buildings because each number shows a building's 'height' and the clues at the edge show how many buildings you can 'see' from that side. A helpful way to remember the puzzle is to imagine rows of city skyscrapers and which ones are visible.