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:
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
I’ve been an eyewitness to lost specimens turning up in a museum when a colleague spotted a dinosaur skull and pterosaur skeleton sitting on the wrong shelf like misplaced library books.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
Hesperosuchus had a longer, narrower snout, while Eosphorosuchus had a shorter and more heavily reinforced skull with stronger jaw muscles.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026
It’s hard not to feel some kind of sympathy for Max, who sustained a severe brain injury while he was incarcerated that required surgeons to install a metal plate in his skull.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
It's hard to believe that this tamping iron shot through the skull without killing Phineas Gage.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Wisdom teeth aren’t useless in principle, but they no longer fit comfortably within modern skulls.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Even in my fire company, where we are dedicated to preventing loss of life, skulls are on practically every T-shirt, bumper sticker, and key chain.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
He would steal ad posters, paint over them with rudimentary cartoon skulls with X’ed-out eyes in pastel colors, then carefully replace them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
The best soccer isn’t a contest of skulls, but a contest of intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The skulls were warped, like candles left too near the fire, so that none held the same shape.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
