Standard Lemma guide

sulcus

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈsʌl.kəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ʌlkəs

1

noun

Meaning 1

A furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue, especially that marking the convolutions of the surface of the brain.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: anatomy, medicine, sciences

Examples

  • The sulci and gyri are the grooves and ridges, respectively.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A region of subparallel grooves or ditches formed by a geological process.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences, planetology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

(anatomy) any of the narrow grooves in an organ or tissue especially those that mark the convolutions on the surface of the brain

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fissure

Narrower terms: fissure of Rolando, Rolando's fissure, central sulcus, sulcus centralis, fissure of Sylvius, Sylvian fissure, lateral cerebral sulcus, sulcus lateralis cerebri, parieto-occipital sulcus, parieto-occipital fissure, calcarine sulcus, calcarine fissure

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sulcus (“a furrow made by a plow”). Doublet of sullow ("plough").

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تَلَم (talam) — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Bulgarian: вдлъбнатина (vdlǎbnatina) — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Bulgarian: бразда (brazda) — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Chinese Mandarin: 溝 /沟 (gōu) — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Czech: zářez — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Czech: rýha — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Czech: brázda — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Esperanto: sulko — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Finnish: uurre — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • German: Furche — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Greek: αύλακας (ávlakas) — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Hungarian: barázda — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Polish: bruzda — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Slovak: ryha — furrow or groove in an organ or a tissue
  • Arabic: ثَلْم (ṯalm) — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Bulgarian: мозъчна гънка (mozǎčna gǎnka) — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Finnish: aivouurre — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Greek: αύλακας (ávlakas) — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Hungarian: barázda — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Hungarian: agybarázda — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Polish: bruzda — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Portuguese: sulco — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Serbo-Croatian: бра́зда — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Serbo-Croatian: brázda — groove on the surface of the brain
  • Spanish: surco — groove on the surface of the brain