-cephaly

American  

1. a combining form of nouns that correspond to adjectives ending in -cephalic or -cephalous:

   dolichocephaly.

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Usage

What does -cephaly mean? The combining form -cephaly is used like a suffix meaning “the state of having a head or heads.” It is often used in medical and scientific terms.To get more technical, -cephaly is used to create noun forms of adjectives ending in -cephalic or -cephalous. Discover how those forms are used in our Words That Use articles for them.The form -cephaly comes from the Greek kephalḗ, meaning “head.”Corresponding forms of -cephaly, -cephalic, and -cephalous combined to the beginning of words are cephalo- and cephal-, which you can learn more about in our Words That Use articles for each form.Also deriving from kephalḗ are the combining forms encephalo- and encephal-, meaning “brain.”Want to know more? Read our Words That Use encephalo- and encephal- articles.