Sheet

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ʃiːt/

Definitions

1. A flat surface, commonly fabric or paper, utilized for various purposes, including bedding or writing
2. A flat item made of material that can serve as bedding or be used for writing, and can also refer to a broad area or layer of a substance like metal or ice
3. A piece of cloth used to cover a mattress or wrap a sleeper ; a broad, flat expanse or layer of material such as ice or metal ; one leaf of paper used for writing or printing

Etymology: Most people picture a sheet as a flat piece of bedding or paper, but its oldest sense was a corner. Old English "sċēat" meant a corner or angle, and a related word, "sċēata," referred to the lower corner of a sail, which was the rope or line used to hold that corner in place. The sail sense is the clearest bridge to the modern meaning: the rope that controlled the sail's lower corner was called a sheet, and the name stayed with the rope even as the word spread to other uses. The meaning of "sċīete," a piece of linen cloth, probably developed from the idea of a cloth sheltering a bed, giving us the bedding sense. The notion of a broad, thin layer then extended to paper and to sheets of metal or ice. Its ancestors meant "corner, wedge, lap," and the same root appears across the Germanic languages: Dutch "schoot" meant both a lap and a sheet, and Icelandic "skaut" covered a cloth's corner, a sail line, and a hood.

Synonyms: layer, page, slab, plate, panel

Antonyms: whole, solid, block, mass, entity