1
: a narrow opening or crack of considerable length and depth usually occurring from some breaking or parting
a fissure in the earth's crust
2
a
: a natural cleft between body parts or in the substance of an organ
b
: a break or slit in tissue usually at the junction of skin and mucous membrane
3
: a separation or disagreement in thought or viewpoint : schism
fissures in a political party
fissured; fissuring
Synonyms
Examples of fissure in a Sentence
Noun
a fissure in the Earth's crust
a deep fissure in the ice
Recent Examples on the Web
Ashoka Mody, The Atlantic, 26 Apr. 2024
Roughly 3 million gallons of oil, about 4.5 Olympic swimming pools, spewed through fissures in the ocean floor after an oil well six miles off the southern California coast blew out.
—Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 19 Apr. 2024
By seizing their wealth, Navalny argued, the West could cause fissures in the Kremlin elites, thus speeding the collapse of the regime that started the invasion.
—Simon Shuster / Vilnius, TIME, 17 Apr. 2024
Republicans have seized on those fissures, supporting laws at the state and federal level that limit trans rights.
—Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2024
Polls showed deep fissures between Black people and white people on the question of his innocence.
—Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
Beginning just after 8:00 p.m. local time Saturday, the blast opened a nearly two-mile-long fissure between two mountains, close to the same size and location as February’s event.
—Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Mar. 2024
The Reykjanes Peninsula’s fissure volcanism is especially peculiar.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024
One great challenge with fissures is their unpredictability.
—Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2024
Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 12 Feb. 2024
Beginning with the backlash to the 2008 election of Barack Obama, Lowery examines how American society has fissured in the past 15 years, profiling the victims of white supremacy and the institutions that support it. CALIFORNIA, A SLAVE STATE, by Jean Pfaelzer.
—New York Times, 23 June 2023
The other stream of cultural anthropology will continue to evolve and fissure, as a thousand 'discourses' bloom.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2013
But where some teams fissure under the weight of unfulfilled expectations, going through that experience collectively made this group even tighter.
—Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 5 June 2021
The statements made by Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira fed into a world already fissured by deep-rooted racial and economic discrimination.
—Gale Ure, Quartz Africa, 25 Apr. 2020
Even before Saturday’s major aftershock, which fissured more roads and prompted more landslides, Puerto Rico estimated damages from a 6.4-magnitude quake on Tuesday at $110 million.
—Patricia Mazzei, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2020
This land is made of igneous rock fissured with gold.
—Juliana Hanle, Scientific American, 18 Nov. 2019
Noun
Under Modi’s rule, India has taken a sharp turn toward autocracy, but to get there, the BJP had only to drive a truck through the fissures in the state’s democratic foundations that earlier governments had already widened.
—Ashoka Mody, The Atlantic, 26 Apr. 2024
Roughly 3 million gallons of oil, about 4.5 Olympic swimming pools, spewed through fissures in the ocean floor after an oil well six miles off the southern California coast blew out.
—Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 19 Apr. 2024
By seizing their wealth, Navalny argued, the West could cause fissures in the Kremlin elites, thus speeding the collapse of the regime that started the invasion.
—Simon Shuster / Vilnius, TIME, 17 Apr. 2024
Republicans have seized on those fissures, supporting laws at the state and federal level that limit trans rights.
—Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2024
Polls showed deep fissures between Black people and white people on the question of his innocence.
—Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
Beginning just after 8:00 p.m. local time Saturday, the blast opened a nearly two-mile-long fissure between two mountains, close to the same size and location as February’s event.
—Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Mar. 2024
The Reykjanes Peninsula’s fissure volcanism is especially peculiar.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024
One great challenge with fissures is their unpredictability.
—Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2024
Verb
Challenges ahead Bailey is becoming chief at a time when deadly shootings by officers have exploded, fissuring relationships with the community that remain strained from the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 and fatal shooting of Dreasjon Reed by an Indianapolis officer on May 6 the same year.
—Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 12 Feb. 2024
Beginning with the backlash to the 2008 election of Barack Obama, Lowery examines how American society has fissured in the past 15 years, profiling the victims of white supremacy and the institutions that support it. CALIFORNIA, A SLAVE STATE, by Jean Pfaelzer.
—New York Times, 23 June 2023
The other stream of cultural anthropology will continue to evolve and fissure, as a thousand 'discourses' bloom.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2013
But where some teams fissure under the weight of unfulfilled expectations, going through that experience collectively made this group even tighter.
—Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 5 June 2021
The statements made by Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira fed into a world already fissured by deep-rooted racial and economic discrimination.
—Gale Ure, Quartz Africa, 25 Apr. 2020
Even before Saturday’s major aftershock, which fissured more roads and prompted more landslides, Puerto Rico estimated damages from a 6.4-magnitude quake on Tuesday at $110 million.
—Patricia Mazzei, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2020
This land is made of igneous rock fissured with gold.
—Juliana Hanle, Scientific American, 18 Nov. 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fissure.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near fissure
Cite this Entry
“Fissure.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fissure. Accessed 2 May. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
fissure
noun
fis·sure
ˈfish-ər, British also ˈfish-yu̇r 
1
: a natural cleft between body parts or in the substance of an organ: as
a
: any of several clefts separating the lobes of the liver
b
: any of various clefts between bones or parts of bones in the skull
c
: any of the deep clefts of the brain
especially
: one of those located at points of elevation in the walls of the ventricles compare sulcus
d
2
: a break or slit in tissue usually at the junction of skin and mucous membrane
fissure of the lip
3
: a linear developmental imperfection in the enamel of a tooth
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