fissure

American  

[fish-er] / ˈfɪʃ ər /

noun

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

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

Etymology

Origin of fissure

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

Example Sentences

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

From Salon

The sandfly commonly shelters in cracks in poorly plastered mud houses, anthills and soil fissures, multiplying during the rainy season after prolonged drought.

From Barron's

The SDF had long shown fissures among the Kurdish, Arab and other factions that made up its force.

From The Wall Street Journal

The peak of Yosemite’s granite wall is higher than the tallest building in the world and requires climbers to navigate a maze of fissures, crevices and cracks.

From Los Angeles Times

Telling your husband to cut his children out of his will won’t improve his relationship with them, but it will cause fissures in your own marriage.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• cleavage
• crevice