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:
Miss Yodle, the family’s uptight neighbor, styles her hair “in tight little braids twisted around her skull, giving her head the air of a victim.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The surgery involved inserting an endoscope - a thin camera on a stick - via the nose to the base of the skull.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Taeyong has used the occasion to sketch a large, detailed star and skull on his.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Before surgery, Amabile shared that he would undergo a craniotomy, a surgery in which a neurosurgeon temporarily removes a piece of the skull to reach the brain and remove the tumor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
The results are digitized so the specifics of Phineas's skull can be overlaid onto a three-dimensional computer image of a generic human skull.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Their contrasting skulls and jaws suggest that closely related predators were already dividing up available food resources by developing different feeding strategies.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026
There’s a bug-eyed rabbit, a blue donkey and several variations of what appear to be skulls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
The best soccer isn’t a contest of skulls, but a contest of intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Texas Sen. John Cornyn shared a meme of Collins sitting on a throne of skulls.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
Their knuckles were white on the sides of the chariot, their teeth chattering like windup Halloween skulls.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
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.
