suture
Americannoun
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Surgery.
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a joining of the lips or edges of a wound or the like by stitching or some similar process.
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a particular method of doing this.
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one of the stitches or fastenings employed.
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Anatomy.
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the line of junction of two bones, especially of the skull, in an immovable articulation.
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the articulation itself.
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Zoology, Botany. the junction or line of junction of contiguous parts, as the line of closure between the valves of a bivalve shell, a seam where carpels of a pericarp join, etc.
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a seam as formed in sewing; a line of junction between two parts.
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a sewing together or a joining as by sewing.
verb (used with object)
noun
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surgery
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catgut, silk thread, or wire used to stitch together two bodily surfaces
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Also called: seam. the surgical seam formed after joining two surfaces
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anatomy a type of immovable joint, esp between the bones of the skull ( cranial suture )
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a seam or joining, as in sewing
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zoology a line of junction in a mollusc shell, esp the line between adjacent chambers of a nautiloid shell
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botany a line marking the point of dehiscence in a seed pod or capsule
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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suturesimple
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suturessimple
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have suturedperfect
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has suturedperfect
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am suturingprogressive
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are suturingprogressive
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is suturingprogressive
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have been suturingperfect progressive
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has been suturingperfect progressive
Past
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suturedsimple
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had suturedperfect
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was suturingprogressive
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were suturingprogressive
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had been suturingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of suture
1535–45; < Latin sūtūra seam, suture, equivalent to sūt ( us ) (past participle of suere to sew 1 ) + -ūra -ure
Explanation
If your energetic dog gets his paws on your beloved teddy bear, and you don’t realize it until it’s too late, you might have to use a needle and thread to suture Teddy’s left arm back onto his body. Derived from the Latin sutura, which means “a sewing together,” the word suture can function as both a verb and a noun. Teddy’s situation aside, this word almost always refers to stitches performed on the human body. To suture is to stitch up a wound or incision. When used as a noun, it can refer to either the thread used for the stitching or the seam that is created by this process.
Vocabulary lists containing suture
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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National Nurses Week: Tasks and Equipment
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Derek Walcott (1930-2017) Tribute List
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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:
"There'll be rapid tests, suture kits, syringes, oxygen supplies, vaccines and a small fridge for storing medicines," it explained in a statement.
From BBC ● May 5, 2025
“He and I are both doing the same thing, same philosophy, in adding braided suture to repair and enhance the existing torn ligament as well as putting in the new graft,” ElAttrache said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
Veterinarians rehydrate it with saline solution before surgery, then lay it over a dog's corneal lesion and suture it into place, where it acts as scaffolding for regenerating cells.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 1, 2023
The unexpected finding led the team to hypothesize that another type of bone-forming stem cell was driving the abnormal suture fusion.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2023
Sean wasn’t even supposed to have these things; EMTs didn’t suture in the field.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
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Back in 2011, the writer-director was already tinkering with a version of the monster that resembled a blend of Iggy Pop and Boris Karloff with jagged sutures, gaunt wrinkles and a crushed nose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
He had 28-day-old sutures he contemplated removing himself because they itched so badly.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2025
In recent news, there has been a case where a patient experienced pain due to a surgical procedure involving sutures, resulting in the unintended presence of gauze within the patient's body.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2024
Already researchers have harnessed spider silk for a biomedical and engineering uses as sutures and scaffolding for regrowing tissue.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 12, 2024
I’ve lost my composure in front of a stranger, and ripped open the sutures of my Bas-shaped wound, all over again, because they never seem to heal.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
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For one group of rats, the sutured area was irradiated with a helium plasma jet.
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2024
Rodriguez could now follow the contour of the tube with a surgical device that sequentially cut, stapled and sutured stomach tissue.
From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2023
Once sedated, it was transported to a veterinary practice at Birtley where it underwent X-rays and a wound suffered when it had attempted to escape the trap was cleaned and sutured.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2022
When this happens, doctors may recommend surgical treatments, such as a heart transplant or implantation of mechanical pumps that are sutured into the patient’s heart to help pump blood throughout the body.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 2022
It was as though we were two halves of the same animal, sutured together by a bond deeper than flesh.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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I experienced, firsthand, how incredibly useful and even crucial physician assistants can be; they handled duties like suturing and treating minor injuries, freeing me up to focus on more complex cases.
From Salon ● May 16, 2024
In the medical area, adhesives play a crucial role, from suturing internal wounds to attaching sensors and implanting medical devices.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 13, 2024
“He was suturing in his sleep,” she says.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2023
Some involve injecting cardiomyocytes into the heart wall, others require suturing patches made from cells directly onto the heart.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 28, 2023
At age thirty-nine he’d already invented the first technique for suturing blood vessels together, and had used it to perform the first coronary bypass and develop methods for transplanting organs.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
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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.