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skywriting

skywriting

4 6.8
Words or pictures made in the sky by smoke from a plane
  • noun
  • /ˈskaɪˌraɪtɪŋ/
translation icon : escritura en el cielo
  • Rather than ask this pathetic question, why didn't Stein instead hire a skywriting plane to write "Ben R Dumb" in gigantic letters?
  • skywriting that said

In contrast, I'd have to be careful as the offer or to unambiguously make skywriting the only means of accepting the contract.

Examples

  • The advertisement was made more eye-catching by skywriting a message across the blue sky.

  • I do see the skywriting there.

  • For a moment there, I thought you were going to do a little skywriting.

  • Get out of the car, run across... you see the skywriting, "Help"... and realise everything's gone wrong.

  • Giant words in skywriting.

  • The skywriting in his dream wasn't a word or phrase; it was five white clouds drifting in a blue sky.

    Blog text (32)
  • Lying, left hand for a pillow on the shingled slant of the roof, there in the shade of the gable, staring at the cloud-curdles in the afternoon's blue pool, I seemed to see, between blinks, above the campus and myself, an instant piece of skywriting.

    Blog text (32)
  • During the fair, a pilot entertained the crowd with skywriting intricate shapes and words.

  • For his proposal, he hired a plane for skywriting to spell out, 'Will you marry me?'

How Visible

skywriting
4 6.8
smoke
711 1.0
banner
191 1.2
contrail
  • Specialized
8 7.3

Surface Forms

skywriting singular
skywritings plural

Morphology

skywriting = sky + writing (transparent) = sky + writing

A direct compound of 'sky' + 'writing' whose meaning ('writing formed in the sky') is literal and clear to learners who know both components.

Etymology

The word skywriting is a simple combination of sky ('the space above us') and writing ('making letters'). So, it means 'writing in the sky', where planes use smoke to draw letters or pictures as messages or ads.