skull
Americannoun
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skulls
plural
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the bony framework of the head, enclosing the brain and supporting the face; the skeleton of the head.
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the head as the center of knowledge and understanding; mind.
to get literature's great ideas through our skulls.
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Armor. the part of a helmet that covers the top of the head.
idioms
noun
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the bony skeleton of the head of vertebrates See cranium
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derogatory the head regarded as the mind or intelligence
to have a dense skull
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a picture of a skull used to represent death or danger
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The part of the skeleton that forms the framework of the head, consisting of the bones of the cranium, which protect the brain, and the bones of the face.
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See more at skeleton
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of skull
1175–1225; Middle English scolle < Old Norse skalli
Explanation
The bones of a person's or animal's head make up the skull. All vertebrates have a skull. Pirate flags often feature a human skull and crossbones (because a parrot skull wouldn’t be nearly so scary). The wide-eyed head of a skeleton is its skull. Skulls are hard and bony, but they're a little bit flexible as well—characteristics that help them protect the brain they enclose. Your skull consists of two parts: the bones of your face and the neurocranium, or "braincase." The precise origin of skull is uncertain, but it probably traces back to the Old English scealu, "husk or shell."
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:
On tabletops with less abstract design, such as one with a skull depicted, differences in glazing and firing mean there are variations in the hue and colors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
But it also possesses long, continuously growing incisors and several distinctive skull features seen in zalambdalestoids, a group of small, shrew-like insectivore mammals.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
Fletcher fractured his skull when colliding with concrete barriers next to the pitch at Bath City's ground, and was forced to retire in 2024.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Look one way and there was a Bitcoin-themed art gallery featuring a 6-foot skull made of motherboards; look the other, and there was a massive inflatable monkey wearing an orange crown.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Under the careful eye of the curators, Dr. Galaburda x-rays, photographs, and remeasures the skull.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Nearby, teams of archaeologists worked in tents, assembling skeletons out of the discovered bones and piecing together skulls that were destroyed by blunt-force trauma.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
She probably won’t smash quite as many skulls as Jack Reacher, but it looks like a decent action show that dads everywhere will enjoy.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
The loss of the princesses' skulls restricts the kinds of analyses that can be performed, and the team has not yet completed every type of investigation it hopes to conduct.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
Yak skulls, tails and hair hang in a barn overseen by a furtive gray cat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
"The worst cases cause mutation. Some might grow boils or develop black lumps, but others suffer from warped bones and muscles—even their skulls change shape, and new limbs grow where they shouldn't."
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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.
