dehiscent
/dɪˈhɪsənt/adjective
dehiscent is an adjective meaning “Of or pertaining to dehiscence, i.e., a rupture, as with a surgical wound opening up, often with a flow of serous fluid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-H-I-S-C-E-N-T, and it appears about once in every 35 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does dehiscent mean?
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to dehiscence, i.e., a rupture, as with a surgical wound opening up, often with a flow of serous fluid.
- 2
Which dehisces or presents dehiscence.
a dehiscent fruit
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce dehiscent?
- UK /dɪˈhɪsənt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dehiscent.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dehiscent
- more dehiscent comparative
- most dehiscent superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is dehiscent?
Dehiscent appears about once in every 35 million words in written English, the 180,281st 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).
Dehiscent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense botany: which dehisces:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | déhiscent |
| German | Streu- |
| Spanish | dehiscente |
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 dehiscent come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin dehīscentem, present participle of dehīscō (“to divide, split open, gape”), from hīscō (“to yawn, gape”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).