skin
9 synonyms for skin, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The layer of tissue that covers and protects the body of an animal, including a person.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Etymology
Came into English as Middle English skyn or skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), a nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). It partially displaced the native Old English word hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which hide...
Full origin of skin →