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suture

nounverbattested in dialogue

  • United States//ˈsu.t͡ʃɚ//
  • //ˈs(j)uː.tʃə//
  • /[ˈs(j)ʊu̯.tʃə]/
  • //ˈs(j)uː.tjʊə//
  • /[ˈs(j)ʊu̯.tʰjʊə]/

A seam formed by sewing two edges together, especially to join pieces of skin in surgically treating a wound.

noun

  1. 1

    A seam formed by sewing two edges together, especially to join pieces of skin in surgically treating a wound.

    Although the sutures are difficult to trace, the supraoccipital contacts the parietal anteriorly at a tight interdigitated suture, and contacts the ophistotic posterolaterally at a straight suture.

  2. 2

    Thread used to sew or stitch two edges (especially of skin) together.

  3. 3

    An area where separate terrane join together along a major fault.

  4. 4

    A type of fibrous joint bound together by Sharpey's fibres which only occurs in the skull.

  5. 5

    A seam or line, such as that between the segments of a crustacean, between the whorls of a univalve shell, or where the elytra of a beetle meet.

  6. 6

    The seam at the union of two margins in a plant.

    It is also generally marked above by flexuose anastomosing black, indented lines, whence it appears as if insculpt with rivulose sutures.

  7. 7

    figurativeThe procedure by which a subject comes to be identified with its own representation, as in the identification of the speaker with the sign “I” within a certain discourse; (by extension) any process by which the content of something is determined or supplied from outside itself.

    The suture of science and philosophy constitutes an identification of philosophical thought and scientific objectivity that is unfortunately typical of contemporary so-called ‘analytic’ philosophy. […] Yet, the over-identification of philosophical tasks with science itself signifies a veritable retreat from philosophy itself.

Etymology

From Middle English suture, from Latin sūtūra (“suture”), from suere (“sew, join or tack together”) + -tūra (forms action nouns).

verb

  1. 1

    figurativeTo sew up or join by means of a suture.

Forms

plural
sutures
past tense
sutured
past participle
sutured
present participle
suturing
third person singular
sutures
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).