fissure

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: fis=sure

CIDE DICTIONARY

fissure, n. [L. fissura, fr. findere, fissum, to cleave, split; akin to E. bite: cf. F. fissure.].

 A narrow opening, made by the parting of any substance; a cleft; as, the fissure of a rock.  [1913 Webster]

Cerebral fissures (Anat.), the furrows or clefts by which the surface of the cerebrum is divided; esp., the furrows first formed by the infolding of the whole wall of the cerebrum. -- Fissure needle (Surg.), a spiral needle for catching together the gaping lips of wounds. Knight. -- Fissure of rolando (Anat.), the furrow separating the frontal from the parietal lobe in the cerebrum. -- Fissure of Sylvius (Anat.), a deep cerebral fissure separating the frontal from the temporal lobe. See Illust. under Brain. -- Fissure vein (Mining), a crack in the earth's surface filled with mineral matter. Raymond.

fissure, v. t. 

 To cleave; to divide; to crack or fracture.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fissure, n. & v.
--n.
1 an opening, usu. long and narrow, made esp. by cracking, splitting, or separation of parts.
2 Bot. & Anat. a narrow opening in an organ etc., esp. a depression between convolutions of the brain.
3 a cleavage.
--v.tr. & intr. split or crack.

Etymology

ME f. OF fissure or L fissura f. findere fiss- cleave

THESAURUS

fissure

abysm, abyss, amputate, arachnoid, arbor vitae, archipallium, arroyo, ax, between brain, bisect, box canyon, brain stem, breach, break, break open, break up, breakage, broach, burst, bust, butcher, caesura, canyon, carve, cavity, cerebellar hemispheres, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, cerebrospinal fluid, cerebrum, cessation, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink, chip, chop, cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, col, come apart, come unstuck, convolution, corpus callosum, corpus striatum, coulee, couloir, crack, cranny, crevasse, crevice, cut, cut away, cut in two, cut off, cut open, cwm, defile, dell, dichotomize, diencephalon, dike, disintegrate, dispart, dissever, ditch, divaricate, divide, donga, draw, dura mater, endbrain, excavation, excise, exfoliate, fall to pieces, fault, flaw, flume, fly open, folia, forebrain, fornix, fracture, frontal lobe, furrow, gap, gape, gash, give away, give way, glial cells, globus pallidus, gorge, gray matter, groove, gulch, gulf, gully, gyrus, hack, halve, hew, hiatus, hindbrain, hippocampus, hole, hypothalamus, incise, incision, interim, intermission, interruption, interval, jigsaw, joint, kloof, lacuna, lance, lay open, leak, lenticular nucleus, letup, limbic lobe, little brain, lobe, lull, mantle, medulla oblongata, meninges, mesencephalon, metencephalon, midbrain, moat, myelencephalon, neopallium, notch, nullah, occipital lobe, ope, open, open up, opening, optic chiasm, pallium, pare, parietal lobe, part, pass, passage, pause, pia mater, pineal body, pituitary body, pons, prune, ravine, rend, rent, reticular system, rhombencephalon, rift, rime, rip, rive, rupture, saw, scale, schism, scissor, scissure, seam, separate, sever, slash, slice, slit, slot, snap, snip, splinter, split, spread, spread out, spring a leak, spring open, start, subthalamus, sunder, suspension, swing open, tap, tear, tear open, telencephalon, temporal lobe, thalamus, throw open, trench, valley, ventricle, vermis, void, wadi, white matter, whittle

ROGET THESAURUS

fissure

Disjunction

N disjunction, disconnection, disunity, disunion, disassociation, disengagement, discontinuity, abjunction, cataclasm, inconnection, abstraction, abstractedness, isolation, insularity, insulation, oasis, island, separateness, severalty, disjecta membra, dispersion, apportionment, separation, parting, circumcision, detachment, segregation, divorce, sejunction, seposition, diduction, diremption, discerption, elision, caesura, break, fracture, division, subdivision, rupture, compartition, dismemberment, dislocation, luxation, severance, disseverance, scission, rescission, abscission, laceration, dilaceration, disruption, abruption, avulsion, divulsion, section, resection, cleavage, fission, partibility, separability, fissure, breach, rent, split, rift, crack, slit, incision, dissection anatomy, decomposition, cutting instrument, buzzsaw, circular saw, rip saw, separatist, disjoined, discontinuous, multipartite, abstract, disjunctive, secant, isolated, insular, separate, disparate, discrete, apart, asunder, far between, loose, free, unattached, unannexed, unassociated, unconnected, distinct, adrift, straggling, rift, reft, scissile, divisible, discerptible, partible, separable, separately, one by one, severally, apart, adrift, asunder, in twain, in the abstract, abstractedly.

Interval

N interval, interspace, separation, break, gap, opening, hole, chasm, hiatus, caesura, interruption, interregnum, interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha, gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm, gulf, inlet, frith, strait, gully, pass, furrow, abra, barranca, barranco, clove, gulch, notch, yawning gulf, hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus, parenthesis, void, incompleteness, period, interim (time), with an interval, far between, breachy, rimose, rimulose, at intervals, longo intervallo.