Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧠 Making skull hole 🕳️ A skull opening
trephining

trephining

9.9
A hole in the skull or the small bone piece removed during surgery
  • noun
  • /trəˈfaɪnɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : trepanación
  • The X-ray revealed a small trephining where the surgeon had removed a section of bone.

Examples

  • Archaeologists discovered an ancient skull with evidence of trephining performed thousands of years ago.

  • After the operation, the patient had a visible trephining in the skull.

  • The doctor performed a trephining to relieve pressure on the brain.

  • After the accident, a trephining was necessary for the patient's recovery.

  • The surgeon explained that a trephining was needed to remove the damaged bone from the patient's skull.

  • The ancient practice of trephining was used to treat head injuries in prehistoric cultures.

  • During the surgery, a trephining was performed to create an opening in the skull for better access to the brain.

How Large

trephining
  • Specialized
9.9
puncture
48 3.8

Surface Forms

trephining singular
trephinings plural

Morphology

trephining = trephine (semi-transparent) = trephine + ing

The noun is transparently formed from the verb 'trephine' plus '-ing', but the sense is a specialized medical term rather than a fully predictable everyday meaning.

Etymology

Trephining comes from the Greek word trypanon, meaning 'borer' or 'drill'. So a trephining is the round hole left when a doctor 'bores' out a small piece of skull.