SHEER
What does "SHEER" mean?
Complete and utter; or very thin and translucent; or extremely steep.
Meanings
- Nothing other than; complete, utter, absolute. He won by sheer determination.
- Very thin, fine, and nearly transparent, as fabric. The window was hung with sheer white curtains.
- Extremely steep, almost vertical. The climbers faced a sheer cliff of bare rock.
- To swerve or change course suddenly, especially of a ship. The boat sheered away from the rocks. technical
Word origin
From Middle English 'schere', meaning clear or pure, probably from Old Norse 'skaerr' (bright, clean); the 'steep' and 'thin' senses developed from the idea of unbroken, pure surface.
Remember it
SHEER sounds like 'sheer' off a cliff - and you can see right through SHEER fabric: thin, steep, and pure all at once.
A little poem
Sheer rock, sheer drop, no ledge between-
and through the sheer of morning haze
the valley floor, by sheer luck, holds.
tercet
Wordplay
- The cliff and the curtain both called themselves sheer - one you could see through, the other you'd rather not look down.
What it teaches
One word can mean total, thin, and steep at once - context, not spelling, decides which edge you're on.
Quick facts
What does SHEER mean?
Complete and utter; or very thin and translucent; or extremely steep.
Is SHEER a valid word?
Yes — SHEER is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SHEER?
SHEER has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SHEER come from?
From Middle English 'schere', meaning clear or pure, probably from Old Norse 'skaerr' (bright, clean); the 'steep' and 'thin' senses developed from the idea of unbroken, pure surface.
What can SHEER teach us?
One word can mean total, thin, and steep at once - context, not spelling, decides which edge you're on.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.