Synonyms

fusiform

American

[fyoo-zuh-fawrm] / ˈfyu zəˌfɔrm /

adjective

spindle-shaped; rounded and tapering from the middle toward each end, as some roots.

fusiform British

/ ˈfjuːzɪˌfɔːm /

adjective

elongated and tapering at both ends; spindle-shaped

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

subfusiform

adjective

Etymology

Origin of fusiform

1740–50; < Latin fūs ( us ) spindle + -i- + -form

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.

She had a broad bulge that’s called a fusiform aneurysm, and a coil wouldn’t fix the rupture.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2022

Results showed higher activity in brain regions dedicated to faces, bodies and scenes, compared with the other categories surveyed in the fusiform face area, the extrastriate body area and the parahippocampal place area, respectively.

From Scientific American • Nov. 15, 2021

"Small-headed Child who Power-Lifts with #sharpie_eyes & uncircumcised fusiform fingers struggles to defend #Renoir's painting abilities on social media."

From The Verge • Oct. 12, 2015

Animals with bilateral symmetry that live in water tend to have a fusiform shape: this is a tubular shaped body that is tapered at both ends.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Shell straight or curved, fusiform, aperture simple, siphuncle contracted at septa.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 6 "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics" by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023