What does cribrous mean?
Cribrous describes something perforated with numerous small holes, like the surface of a sieve. It derives from the Latin cribrum, meaning 'sieve', and belongs to a small family of technical terms that use this image to characterise porous structures. Its principal modern habitat is anatomy: the thin plate of the ethmoid bone through which olfactory nerves pass from nose to brain is famously riddled with such apertures, though biologists more often describe it with the related word 'cribriform'. Because of this narrow application, cribrous is genuinely rare outside scientific writing and carries a formal, scholarly connotation. For general readers it functions mainly as a vivid piece of descriptive vocabulary — a precise way to say that something is pitted or sieved through with tiny openings rather than merely rough or damaged.
adjectivePerforated or pierced with small holes like a sieve; riddled with tiny apertures. The word is chiefly encountered in anatomy, where it describes structures such as the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone.
- Pierced with numerous small holes; resembling a sieve in structure (used especially of anatomical and biological structures).
"The bone's cribrous surface allowed olfactory nerve fibres to pass from the nasal cavity into the brain."
"Under the microscope, the tissue appeared distinctly cribrous, its surface riddled with minute pores."
"The ethmoid plate is cribrous, permitting fine nerve filaments to cross between the cranial and nasal cavities."
Your skull has a built-in colander: the plate that lets your sense of smell through is so full of tiny holes it's literally described as 'cribrous' — sieve-like.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cribrous
Cribrous comes from the Latin cribrum, meaning 'sieve', via the Late Latin adjective form cribrosus, 'full of holes like a sieve'. It entered English as a learned borrowing used in anatomical and scientific description, alongside its better-known sibling cribriform, which combines the same Latin root with the suffix -form ('shaped like'). Both terms preserve the ancient image of the sieve — a tool so fundamental to daily life that Latin gave it a dedicated family of descriptive derivatives.
How cribrous is actually used
Cribrous is a rare, technical word found almost exclusively in anatomy, histology, and older scientific literature. In modern usage the closely related term 'cribriform' (as in the cribriform plate) is far more common; writers should generally prefer it unless deliberately using an archaic register.
Easily confused with cribrous
Fibrous means composed of or containing fibres, whereas cribrous means perforated with many small holes like a sieve.
Cribbage is a card game; cribrous is an adjective describing something sieve-like or full of small holes — they share no connection despite both deriving ultimately from words meaning 'crib' or 'sieve'.