cranial
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cranial
Explanation
Something that's cranial has to do with your skull. A severe cranial injury requires testing to make sure you don't have a concussion. Your cranium is your skull — the hard bone that encloses and protects your brain. Things that are cranial are connected to this part of your body — the cranial space is the area inside your skull, and cranial nerves are connected to your brain. The Greek root of both cranium and cranial is kranion, "skull" or "upper part of the head."
Vocabulary lists containing cranial
Noggin
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Forget Me Not
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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.
Feeling for bumps and other cranial features, practitioners created a profile of the sitter’s character.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
But one twin's diagnosis with acrania — a rare, fatal congenital disorder characterized by the full or partial absence of cranial bones — sent Brandt's world into a grief-stricken tailspin.
From Salon • Apr. 23, 2025
Following the surgery, Mr Coles, who was 66, was unable to swallow due to cranial nerve damage.
From BBC • Jan. 7, 2025
They discovered a vascular tumor the size of a golf ball pressing on her brain stem and entangled in blood vessels and cranial nerves.
From Seattle Times • May 13, 2024
With all visual stimulus removed, the blackness feels larger than my head, as though my cranial cavity has turned inside out.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
