abscission

American  

[ab-sizh-uhn, -sish-] / æbˈsɪʒ ən, -ˈsɪʃ- /

noun

1. the act of cutting off; sudden termination.

2. Botany. the normal separation of flowers, fruit, and leaves from plants.

---

abscission British  

/ -ˈsɪʃ-, æbˈsɪʒən /

noun

1. the separation of leaves, branches, flowers, and bark from plants by the formation of an abscission layer

2. the act of cutting off

---

abscission Scientific  

/ ăb-sĭzh′ən /

1. The separation of a leaf, flower, or fruit from a plant as a result of natural structural and chemical changes.

2. ◆ The abscission zone is a layer of weak, thin-walled cells that form across the base of the plant part where the break eventually occurs. A corky layer containing suberin forms beneath the abscission zone to protect the plant.

---

Etymology

Origin of abscission

First recorded in 1605–15, abscission is from the Latin word abscissiōn- (stem of abscissiō ). See abscissa, -ion

Explanation

Abscission means the cutting off or removal of something, like an unsightly mole on the chin. You can remember that abscission is all about cutting when you see how close it looks to the word scissors. If you are a public speaker who habitually cuts yourself off, your speeches may suffer from abscission. If you’re wounded in the leg in battle and gangrene sets in, you will be faced with the abscission of a limb. Layoffs at work are the abscission of workers.

Example Sentences

The leaves that aren’t dropped from a tree, though, don’t develop abscission layers at all.

From Slate • Dec. 5, 2023

The tree produces less of a chemical called auxin, and that drop in auxin contributes to a weakening of tissue at the leaf stem’s base, creating what’s known as an abscission layer.

From Slate • Dec. 5, 2023

“The restriction of ethylene’s destructive effects only to cells in the abscission zone illustrates the precise control plants exercise over their hormone systems,” Capon wrote.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 2, 2022

Ethylene also triggers leaf and fruit abscission, flower fading and dropping, and promotes germination in some cereals and sprouting of bulbs and potatoes.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Words which in their shortest form end in -d, -de, -ge, -unit, -rt, -se, -sr, take the ending -sion; e.g., abscind, abscission; include, inclusion; emerge, emersion; remit, remission; infuse, infusion; repress, repression.

From Division of Words Rules for the Division of Words at the Ends of Lines, with Remarks on Spelling, Syllabication and Pronunciation by Hamilton, Frederick W. (Frederick William)