| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| fissure |
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| SYLLABICATION: | fis·sure |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f sh  r |
| NOUN: | 1. A long narrow opening; a crack or cleft. 2. The process of splitting or separating; division. 3. A separation into subgroups or factions; a schism. 4. Anatomy A normal groove or furrow, as in the liver or brain, that divides an organ into lobes or parts. 5. Medicine A break in the skin, usually where it joins a mucous membrane, producing a cracklike sore or ulcer. | | INTRANSITIVE & TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: fis·sured, fis·sur·ing, fis·sures
To form a crack or cleft or cause a crack or cleft in. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, cut, from Old French, from Latin fiss ra, from fissus, split. See fissi–.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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