Illustrative Context

There were white clouds in the blue sky.

Target Sense

• The most generic noun for the sky, as seen looking upwards overhead, in the sense of effectively a ‘place’, space or region of the environment where (or ‘under which’) humans live.
• The target sense includes particularly a vertical dimension to this space, often seen as where clouds circulate, or that mountains rise towards.
• The target sense is often also seen as the space where birds fly (up to) -- but avoid terms specific to the sense of ‘air’ as a form of very dispersed matter (rather than a space) that can be breathed in and perceived as wind, dampness, etc..
• Similarly, the sky is often also perceived of as where stars can be seen, but avoid terms specific to the different sense of (outer) space.
• Select the most generic term for the sky as a ‘place’, preferably a term that can be applied irrespective of time, light and weather: i.e. the sky as the place perceived both as blue (or grey with clouds!) during the day, and as black at night.
• Avoid narrower terms with the inherent additional sense of day or daylight, or specific to just the night sky – unless a language has no common single term applicable to sky both during the day and at night. In that case, select the most basic lexeme applied to the sky during the day.
• Select the default, neutral term, avoiding lexemes specific to given registers, e.g. literary firmament.
• Avoid technical and scientific terms , e.g. atmosphere, ether.
• Avoid terms with specific overtones of weather, e.g. thundery sky, heavy sky.
• Avoid terms with narrower additional connotations of a perceived specific shape of the ‘arc’ or ‘vault’ of the sky.
• Avoid religious terms, e.g. heaven(s), where different.