scalpel

[skal-puhl]

noun

1. a small, light, usually straight knife used in surgical and anatomical operations and dissections.

scalpel

/ ˈskælpəl, skælˈpɛlɪk /

noun

1. a surgical knife with a short thin blade

Other Word Forms

• scalpellic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scalpel¹

1735–45; < Latin scalpellum, diminutive of scalprum tool for scraping or paring (derivative of scalpere to scratch); for formation castellum

Word History and Origins

Origin of scalpel¹

C18: from Latin scalpellum, from scalper a knife, from scalpere to scrape

Example Sentences

I watch as a lab technician separates young shoots with a sterile scalpel and forceps.

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Akutagawa, recalled Kurosawa in his memoir, “goes into the depths of the human heart as if with a surgeon’s scalpel, laying bare its dark complexities and bizarre twists.”

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But few legislators could handle a lawmaking scalpel like Burton.

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A surgeon's scalpel to both knee and hamstring.

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When a dropped scalpel impales a surgeon’s foot during a procedure, she can only groan and keep cutting and sewing as the blade sticks out of her foot.

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Related Words

• bayonet 
• blade 
• cutter 
• dagger 
• machete 
• sickle 
• skewer 
• sword