1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Ossify

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

verb-intransitive. To change into bone; become bony.

verb-intransitive. To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern: "The central ideas of liberalism have ossified” ( Jeffrey Hart).

v. To convert (a membrane or cartilage, for example) into bone.

v. To mold into a rigidly conventional pattern.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

v. To transform (or cause to transform) from a softer animal substance into bone; particularly the processes of growth in humans and animals.

v. To become (or cause to become) inflexible and rigid in habits or opinions.

v. To grow (or cause to grow) formulaic and permanent.

v. To calcify.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

v. To form into bone; to change from a soft animal substance into bone, as by the deposition of lime salts.

v. To harden.

verb-intransitive. To become bone; to change from a soft tissue to a hard bony tissue.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To make or form bone in or of; cause ossification in or of; convert into bone, as membrane or cartilage; harden like bone; render osseous.

To become bone; undergo ossification; change or be changed from soft tissue to bone.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

v. make rigid and set into a conventional pattern

v. cause to become hard and bony

v. become bony

Word Usage

"The party is both fanatical and well-informed, and thus unlikely either to "ossify" or "grow soft" and collapse."

Verb Form

ossified ossifies ossifying

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

stiffen change modify alter turn change state

Variant

ossified

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

harden