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PlainSpell

dehisce

de·hisce/dɪˈhɪs/verb

dehisce is a verb meaning “To burst or split open at definite places, discharging seeds, pollen or similar content” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-H-I-S-C-E and has 2 syllables (de·hisce), and it appears about once in every 87 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does dehisce mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To burst or split open at definite places, discharging seeds, pollen or similar content.

    Anthers dehisce when the flower opens.

  2. 2

    To rupture or break open, as a surgical wound.

    A surgical wound may partially or completely dehisce after surgery, depending upon whether some or all of the layers of tissue come open.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce dehisce?

  • /dɪˈhɪs/

Dehisce has 2 syllables, split de·hisce in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dehisce.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of dehisce

  • dehisces present, singular, he/she/it
  • dehiscing participle, present
  • dehisced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is dehisce?

Dehisce appears about once in every 87 million words in written English, the 297,763rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Dehisce in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense (botany) burst or split open:

LanguageWords
Frenchdéhiscer

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dehisce come from?

Borrowed from Latin dehīscō (“to gape, open”), from hiō (“to be open”); related to hiatus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).