skills

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of skill.

   The training program builds practical skills for new employees.

   Strong communication skills help in almost every career.

   Note

   A plural that only works for the countable reading of skill: one learned ability, then several, as in practical skills or communication skills. When you mean expertise in general, say much skill; skills always counts separate abilities. The same spelling also serves the archaic verb meaning "it matters". The British slang adjective skill, "great," never takes the -s.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of skill.

   Note

   The -s form belongs mostly to older English. Its best-known use is archaic and impersonal: it skills little, what skills it, meaning "it matters." In this construction it takes no object, and its subject is usually a bare it. A separate transitive use, "to know or understand," lingers in Northern English and Scottish dialect. There, someone who skills a trade knows it, and nothing is said about whether it matters.

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