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skyline

 
Dictionary: sky·line   (skī'līn') pronunciation
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n.
  1. The line along which the surface of the earth and the sky appear to meet; the horizon.
  2. The outline of a group of buildings or a mountain range seen against the sky.

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Architecture: skyline
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The outline of buildings against the background of the sky.

WordNet: skyline
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the outline of objects seen against the sky

Meaning #2: the line at which the sky and Earth appear to meet
  Synonyms: horizon, apparent horizon, visible horizon, sensible horizon

Wikipedia: Skyline
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For other uses, see Skyline (disambiguation).
The skyline of Hong Kong at night

A skyline is best described as the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as no two skylines are alike. For this reason news and sports programs, television shows, and movies often display the skyline of a city to set location. The Sky Line of New York City was a new term in 1896, when it was the title of a color lithograph by Charles Graham for the color supplement of the New-York Journal.[1]

Paul D. Spreiregen, FAIA, has called a skyline "a physical representation [of a city's] facts of life ... a potential work of art ... its collective vista."[2]

In general, larger cities have broader and taller skylines, though lower density cities often have smaller skylines than expected for city size. Taller buildings are found where either land value or desire for visibility is higher, and the tallest buildings in a city are usually office buildings. Because of this, the skyline of a city can be seen as symbolic of the city's influence and economy.

References

  1. ^ New York Public Library: "Moving Uptown": "When Charles Graham's view of New York was published, the new term used in the title, "sky line," caught on immediately."
  2. ^ Paul D. Spreiregen (1965). Urban Design: The Architecture of Towns and Cities. McGraw-Hill. http://books.google.com/books?id=6zYFAAAAMAAJ. 

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Translations: Skyline
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - horisont, kontur, omrids

Nederlands (Dutch)
horizon, silhouet, skyline, stadsgezicht

Français (French)
n. - ligne d'horizon, ligne des toits

Deutsch (German)
n. - Silhouette

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γραμμή του ορίζοντα, ορίζοντας, (τυπογρ.) τίτλος τυπωμένος πάνω από λογόγραμμα

Italiano (Italian)
panorama della città dai tetti, orizzonte, linea

Português (Portuguese)
n. - linha (f) do horizonte

Русский (Russian)
видимый горизонт, линия горизонта, очертания (на фоне неба), контур здания

Español (Spanish)
n. - horizonte, silueta, perfil

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - horisont, himlarand, kontur, silhuett

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
地平线, 天际, 架空索, 空中轮廓线

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 地平線, 天際, 架空索, 空中輪廓線

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 지평선, (산, 건물 따위가) 하늘을 배경으로 하는 윤곽

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 地平線, スカイライン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألصورة ألظلي, ألافق‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קו רקיע, אופק טבעי‬

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Skyline".  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more