What does cicatrice mean?
A cicatrice is a scar — specifically, the permanent mark left on the skin after a wound, ulcer, burn, or surgical incision has healed. The word is the French-derived variant of the more familiar Latin form 'cicatrix', and both are used chiefly in formal, literary, or medical contexts rather than everyday speech, where 'scar' serves as the plain alternative. A cicatrice may be raised, depressed, or level with the surrounding skin, and its appearance reflects how the tissue knitted itself back together. Beyond human anatomy, the term also appears in botany, describing the small mark left on a stem where a leaf or bud was attached, and occasionally in zoology. Writers have long favoured it for its clinical elegance and slightly antique air, making it useful when precision or elevated diction is wanted. Its derivatives include 'cicatrize' (to heal by scarring) and 'cicatricial' (relating to scars), which keep it alive in medical writing today.
A scar left on the skin by the healing of a wound, sore, or surgical incision.
"Years later, only a faint cicatrice betrayed where the accident had happened."
More common in British usage and in formal or medical writing; 'scar' is the ordinary everyday word.
(Botany, zoology) A small mark or spot resembling a scar, especially one left on a plant stem where a leaf, flower, or fruit was attached.
"The leaf scars, or cicatrices, along the twig marked each node of the previous season's growth."
Pronounced roughly /ˌsɪkəˈtraɪsiːz/, following the Latin plural; note that the stress shifts relative to the singular.
"The veteran's arms were crossed with old cicatrices, each one a story he rarely told."
The plural of this elegant little word for a scar is 'cicatrices' — pronounced with a long 'eez', it sounds more like an Italian opera than a medical record.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cicatrice
Cicatrice comes ultimately from the Latin noun 'cicatrix' (stem 'cicatric-'), meaning the scar of a healed wound. English acquired the word through Old French 'cicatrice' in the early modern period, around the late sixteenth century, alongside the direct Latin borrowing 'cicatrix'. Both forms share the same root with the verb 'cicatrize' and the adjective 'cicatricial'.
Related word forms
How cicatrice is actually used
Formal and somewhat literary in register; 'scar' is the everyday equivalent, while 'cicatrix' is the more common technical variant of the same word. In medicine and pathology, both forms appear, though 'cicatrix' predominates. The plural 'cicatrices' is pronounced differently from the singular (roughly sik-uh-TRY-seez).
Easily confused with cicatrice
A cicada is a noisy insect; a cicatrice is the scar left on skin after a wound heals — the words merely share a similar sound.
Cicatrix is the more common English form of the same word; 'cicatrice' is its variant spelling, borrowed via French.