scrim
7 synonyms for scrim, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A practice match played by a team against another team outside official competition, especially in esports.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun informal, gaming
A practice match played by a team against another team outside official competition, especially in esports.
“We have scrims against a Korean roster every night this week.”
2. noun
A loosely woven cotton or linen cloth used for curtains, lining and upholstery, and in theatre and film as a backdrop that looks solid when lit from the front and transparent when lit from behind.
“A painted scrim dissolved into the forest set as the lights came up behind it.”
How to use scrim
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
The gaming sense is informal and dominant online; the fabric sense is standard technical vocabulary in theatre, film and textiles.
Etymology
Attested since the end of the 18th century, though its origin is unknown. One of the earliest mentions is in John Sinclair's "The Statistical Account of Scotland", 1793, page 593, in a passage on weavers: "Besides these, they are now much employed in working a thin kind of coarse linen called Silesias, vulgarly Scrims,...
Full origin of scrim →