cicatrice

American  

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

noun

plural

cicatrices

1. cicatrix.

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Other Word Forms

• cicatrical adjective
• cicatricial adjective
• noncicatricial adjective
• paracicatricial adjective

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."

Example Sentences

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 the cicatrice of an old wound on a lower limb, but otherwise there was no spot or blemish upon the body.

From Lights and Shadows of New York Life or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City by McCabe, James Dabney

The handsome stalwart fellow, bronzed and weather-worn, his brow crossed by a deep and honourable cicatrice!

From The Curse of Koshiu A Chronicle of Old Japan by Wingfield, Lewis

"This proves the truth of it!" cried Fandor, pointing to a cicatrice on the back of the neck of the murdered man: it was the clear mark of where an abscess had been.

From Messengers of Evil Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantômas by Souvestre, Pierre

When I recovered consciousness, I found that my head had been shaved, and that the cicatrice of my old wound was occasionally very painful.

From The Portent & Other Stories by MacDonald, George

Related Words

• blister
• crater
• defect
• discoloration
• disfigurement
• flaw
• scab
• wound