fissure
Americannoun
-
any long narrow cleft or crack, esp in a rock
-
a weakness or flaw indicating impending disruption or discord
fissures in a decaying empire
-
anatomy a narrow split or groove that divides an organ such as the brain, lung, or liver into lobes See also sulcus
-
a small unnatural crack in the skin or mucous membrane, as between the toes or at the anus
-
a minute crack in the surface of a tooth, caused by imperfect joining of enamel during development
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fissure
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin fissūra cleaving, cleft, fissure, equivalent to fiss ( us ) divided ( see fissi-) + -ūra -ure
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."
Vocabulary lists containing fissure
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Geological Features
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
The fossil remains were recovered from fissure deposits located on both sides of the Bristol Channel in southern Wales and southwest England.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2026
Fittingly, the sound creates a crack in one of the home’s windows: Via that fissure, the unfolding apocalypse creeps into their lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
The bus fell into three-metre-wide ice fissure on Friday, Kobzev said in a post on Telegram.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2026
Like the fissure between Tim and Millie, the cracks in our once-perfect relationship formed so gradually I didn’t even notice them.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2025
No sign of gate or entrance, not a fissure or crack could Frodo see in the frowning stone.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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
He’s doing this in a way that exposes serious fissures within his own party?
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 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
The pain over my heart returns, and from it I imagine tiny fissures spreading out into my body.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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 nine to 12 inches a week and houses cracking and sliding off their foundations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2024
The Wailing Tower only wailed when the wind blew from the north, and that was just the sound the air made blowing through the cracks in the stones where they had fissured from the heat.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
The essence of workplace fissuring is control without responsibility.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2020
The union is already fissuring as a result of a huge migrant flow from Syria and elsewhere, combined with an economic crisis.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2016
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
Later there is the partial shedding and fissuring of the undermined horn and the exuding of the characteristic discharge—in this case not so watery as that of canker.
From Diseases of the Horse's Foot by Reeks, Harry Caulton
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.
