cicatrice

American

[sik-uh-tris, -trees] / ˈsɪk ə trɪs, -tris /

noun

cicatrix.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

cicatrices

plural

Explanation

A cicatrice is a scar, the mark left on your skin when a cut, scrape, or burn has started to heal. If you wipe out on your bike you might end up, weeks later, with a cicatrice on your knee. It's much more common to use the word scar, but you can also use cicatrice, or cicatrix, as it's also spelled. Often a cicatrice will fade over time, as the initial wound completes the healing process, but sometimes a cicatrice can stick around for the rest of your life as a reminder of your youthful skateboard adventures. Cicatrice comes from the Latin cicatrix, "scar."

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For it was the body of his friend, John St. Helen, beyond peradventure?a hooplike scar over the eye, a neck cicatrice, an old leg fracture, a crooked thumb.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a curious curve upward at the end, and a thickened cicatrice, as if it had been carelessly gathered up by the surgeon's needle.

From The Way of the Gods by Long, John Luther

For many years a long white cicatrice recorded the fact in my right hand.

From Tracks of a Rolling Stone by Coke, Henry J. (Henry John)

His features were hard, and on one cheek he had a cicatrice, the remains of some misfortune that had happened to him in his boyhood.

From An Eye for an Eye by Trollope, Anthony

He looked full into Grey's face, and Grey looked full into his; and as he looked the great cicatrice seemed to open itself and to become purple with fresh blood stains.

From Can You Forgive Her? by Trollope, Anthony

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023