cicatrice

American  

[sik-uh-tris, -trees] / ˈsɪk ə trɪs, -tris /

noun

plural

cicatrices

1. cicatrix.

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Other Word Forms

• cicatrical adjective
• cicatricial adjective
• noncicatricial adjective
• paracicatricial adjective

Explanation

A cicatrice is a scar, the mark left on your skin when a cut, scrape, or burn has started to heal. If you wipe out on your bike you might end up, weeks later, with a cicatrice on your knee. It's much more common to use the word scar, but you can also use cicatrice, or cicatrix, as it's also spelled. Often a cicatrice will fade over time, as the initial wound completes the healing process, but sometimes a cicatrice can stick around for the rest of your life as a reminder of your youthful skateboard adventures. Cicatrice comes from the Latin cicatrix, "scar."

Example Sentences

For it was the body of his friend, John St. Helen, beyond peradventure?a hooplike scar over the eye, a neck cicatrice, an old leg fracture, a crooked thumb.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was the cicatrice of an old wound on a lower limb, but otherwise there was no spot or blemish upon the body.

From Lights and Shadows of New York Life or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City by McCabe, James Dabney

Since 1880, since the administration of President Hayes, the wound has been steadily healing, until it has come to seem no longer a burning sore, but an honourable cicatrice.

From America To-day, Observations and Reflections by Archer, William

Didn't leave a cicatrice as big as a bee sting!

From The Faith Healer A Play in Three Acts by Moody, William Vaughn

He was slashed with a wide cicatrice of livid scar tissue from one cheekbone across his nose and down to the button of his jaw on the other side.

From Valley of the Croen by Tarbell, Lee

Related Words

• blister
• crater
• defect
• discoloration
• disfigurement
• flaw
• scab
• wound