How to Use skeletal in a Sentence

skeletal

adjective
  • She was skeletal after her illness.
  • The archaeologist found skeletal remains.
  • Her skeletal body was laid out on a slab of stone.
    — Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN Money, 22 Aug. 2025
  • The skeletal remains of both species have been found at the site.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 28 Nov. 2024
  • The giant cranes that fill the sky like skeletal bridges hummed to life.
    — Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2024
  • On his, the skeletal ribs of a derelict ship stick up from the water.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Clumps of fur around the skeletal remains of a dog ruffle in the wind.
    — Tyler Hicks Marc Santora, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2023
  • The head looked skeletal, but the back part — where the fishtail was - was soft and squidgy.
    — Toria Sheffield, People.com, 22 Mar. 2025
  • An osprey lifts from its skeletal hull to glide low across the water.
    — Lizzie Pook, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Sep. 2022
  • Readers marveled that such a skeletal form could still bring them to tears.
    — Mark Greif, The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2022
  • In skeletal form, dinosaurs can be a source of laughs or an aid to romance.
    — Pam Grady, SFChronicle.com, 14 June 2018
  • Steel pipe provides skeletal support, but the tape does the work.
    — James Ewinger, cleveland.com, 8 Dec. 2017
  • The wind kicks up, and branches click like skeletal finger bones.
    — Lesley Bannatyne, Smithsonian, 27 Oct. 2017
  • The rhythms are sharp and skeletal, but also propulsive and jumpy.
    — Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 14 June 2024
  • And there could be more of the dinosaur's skeletal remains in the area, too.
    — Abigail Adams, Peoplemag, 29 Aug. 2022
  • The bear was skeletal, with a patchy coat, and weak to the point of collapsing.
    — Michele Moses, The New Yorker, 23 June 2019
  • Their eyes were sunken into their faces, their skeletal frames thin and fragile.
    — Brandy Schillace, WSJ, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Viserys looks skeletal, with a covering over the left side of his face.
    — Omar L. Gallaga, Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2022
  • The bones in her face protrude, making her already tiny body all the more skeletal.
    — Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
  • But vacant lots abound, filled with weeds and wildflowers and the skeletal frames of homes.
    — ABC News, 7 June 2026
  • The images show smoke rising from a bowl, and in the smoke a large, skeletal snake appears.
    — James L. Fitzsimmons, The Conversation, 1 May 2024
  • As the door cracked and shattered, Hodor was pierced with dozens of skeletal fingers.
    — James Hibberd, EW.com, 7 Oct. 2020
  • The grotesque sound of skeletal breakage pierces our ears with skin-crawling effect.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2023
  • But the tail of Fukuipteryx is short and ends in a skeletal structure called a pygostyle.
    — Riley Black, Smithsonian, 14 Nov. 2019
  • The trees will rest, their sap stilled and their branches dancing with a dry skeletal clatter in the cold breezes.
    — Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2017
  • The skeletal remains are the second set to be found at Swim Beach.
    — Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2022
  • The other ring found with the same skeletal remains is a plain gold ring without any pattern.
    — ABC News, 6 July 2026
  • Other young pterosaurs were found at the same location but showed no signs of skeletal trauma.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Evolving to be bipedal changed a number of things about the human skeletal structure.
    — Anna Goldfield, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Aug. 2021
  • The skeletal remains of the two victims were in cement vaults, Gill said.
    — Dave Collins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skeletal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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