fissure

American  

[fish-er, fizh-er] / ˈfɪʃ ər, ˈfɪʒ ər /

noun

• fissures
  plural

1. a narrow opening produced by cleavage or separation of parts.

2. cleavage.

3. Anatomy. a natural division or groove in an organ, as in the brain.

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verb (used with object)

fissured, fissuring

1. to make fissures in; cleave; split.

verb (used without object)

fissured, fissuring

1. to open in fissures; become split.

fissure British  

/ ˈfɪʃə /

noun

1. any long narrow cleft or crack, esp in a rock

2. a weakness or flaw indicating impending disruption or discord

   fissures in a decaying empire

3. anatomy a narrow split or groove that divides an organ such as the brain, lung, or liver into lobes See also sulcus

4. a small unnatural crack in the skin or mucous membrane, as between the toes or at the anus

5. a minute crack in the surface of a tooth, caused by imperfect joining of enamel during development

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verb

1. to crack or split apart

fissure Scientific  

/ fĭsh′ər /

1. A long, narrow crack or opening in the face of a rock. Fissures are often filled with minerals of a different type from those in the surrounding rock.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subfissure
  noun
• superfissure
  noun
• fissural
  adjective
• fissureless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fissures
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of fissure

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin fissūra cleaving, cleft, fissure, equivalent to fiss ( us ) divided ( see fissi-) + -ūra -ure

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Explanation

A long fine crack in the surface of something is called a fissure. If you see a fissure in the ice on a frozen lake, you'll want to take off your skates and head back to the car. Fissure has its roots in the Latin word fissura, meaning a cleft or crack. If something breaks into fine cracks, you can describe the action with the verb form of fissure. For example, "She watched in horror as the earth fissured beneath her feet, recognizing the signs of an earthquake but powerless to do anything to save herself except throw herself to the ground and hang on."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fissure fissures fissured fissuring

Ultimately, it will come down to the amount of time that passes and the depth of the fissure between you and your son and daughter-in-law.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

Its release was surrounded by chatter of a fissure between the two leads, and the pair have since feuded publicly about each other’s behavior during and after filming.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

Volcanoes in Iceland are capable of producing fissure eruptions that last for years or even decades, consistent with the 14 year platinum signal.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2026

Asked about the fissure, Cortez Masto responded evenly and with diplomacy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2025

Ghosts climbed from the fissure and seeped from the walls—an entire Roman legion in full battle gear.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Concrete slabs between the homes had started to crack or buckle, with some of the fissures running all the way up to or under the homes’ walls, the news outlet reported.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

As Hass delicately puts it, “The open divergences between Washington and its partners over the war’s legitimacy, execution, and fallout have exposed fissures that risk metastasizing to other issue areas over time.”

From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026

In recent days, there have been public fissures between Iran’s civilian leadership and military hard-liners in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over how much to bend to U.S. demands.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026

Fracking involves injecting high-pressure liquid between layers of rock to force open fissures and release any oil and natural gas stored there.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

Then I looked down and saw fissures in the pavement.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

Black poplar can be identified by its deeply fissured bark and triangular leaves with mature trees often leaning to one side.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026

This is “the scar that history has given us,” Boucheron continues, and ever since “we have been born already fissured, disturbed, uneasy.”

From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026

“Not every slave worked directly for their owner—just like in today’s complex fissured workplace, where not every employee is working directly for the employer with whom they signed an employment contract.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025

Neighborhoods near the golf course are under a city-issued evacuation warning, with the fissured land moving about 9 to 12 inches a week and houses cracking and sliding off their foundations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2024

Harrenhal's gatehouse, itself as large as Winterfell's Great Keep, was as scarred as it was massive, its stones fissured and discolored.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

But in their day-to-day interactions, Hollingworth and Walton were fissuring and floundering.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2022

Workplace fissuring reduces wages by blocking workers from access to higher wages, career ladders, and workplace protections such as union rights with the lead firm.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2020

When rifting of Pangea started at approximately 200 Ma, the fissuring was along a different line from the line of the earlier collision.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The snow that had come down from the avalanches was fissuring, caused by an air pocket below.

From Time ● Jul. 9, 2012

As a rule the nearer to the base, the greater was the amount of fissuring observed.

From Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre by George Henry Makins

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Related Words

• cleavage
• crevice

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