sulcus

American  

[suhl-kuhs] / ˈsʌl kəs /

noun

plural

sulci

1. a furrow or groove.

2. Anatomy. a groove or fissure, especially a fissure between two convolutions of the brain.

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sulcus British  

/ ˈsʌlkəs /

noun

1. a linear groove, furrow, or slight depression

2. any of the narrow grooves on the surface of the brain that mark the cerebral convolutions Compare fissure

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Other Word Forms

• subsulcus noun

Etymology

Origin of sulcus

1655–65; Latin: furrow

Compare meaning

How does sulcus compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• gyrus vs. sulcus

Example Sentences

These patterns were based on sulcus depth and cortical thickness, which describe the folding of the brain surface and the thickness of the brain's outer layer.

From Science Daily • Jan. 4, 2026

"You can think about the intraparietal sulcus as having two knobs on a radio dial: one that adjusts focusing and one that adjusts filtering," Ritz said.

From Science Daily • Mar. 8, 2024

This area, near the lateral cerebral sulcus, is an important region for the processing of acoustic energy so that it can be distinguished as speech, music, or noise.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

The coronary sinus is a large, thin-walled vein on the posterior surface of the heart lying within the atrioventricular sulcus and emptying directly into the right atrium.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

MA represents the præcentral sulcus, and if it be trisected in K and L, these points will correspond to the origins of the superior and inferior frontal sulci.

From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander