trephine

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
14
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/tɹɪˈfaɪn/

Definition of trephine

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. A surgical instrument with a cylindrical blade used to remove a circular section of tissue, such as bone or cornea; a trepan.
    “They removed a core of bone as well as took a bone marrow aspirate from my right hip using a trephine to exclude me having blood cancer, causing a blood- and serum-stained shirt, a whopping hematoma and a great deal of mental anguish and physical pain in the process!”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. A surgical instrument with a cylindrical blade used to remove a circular section of tissue, such as bone or cornea; a trepan.
    “They removed a core of bone as well as took a bone marrow aspirate from my right hip using a trephine to exclude me having blood cancer, causing a blood- and serum-stained shirt, a whopping hematoma and a great deal of mental anguish and physical pain in the process!”

verb

  1. (intransitive)To use a trephine during surgery.
    “"We shall wait," said Van Helsing, "just long enough to fix the best spot for trephining, so that we may most quickly and perfectly remove the blood clot, for it is evident that the haemorrhage is increasing."”
  2. (transitive)To perforate with a trephine.
    “The pony was cast, and trephined, a middle-sized trephine (or bone saw) being used, which removed a circular piece of bone about the size of a two shilling piece, from the face immediately over the air cavity.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Borrowed from French tréphine, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trepan.

Words you can make from trephine

136 playable · top: NEPHRITE (13 pts)

Best play nephrite 13 points

7-letter words

4 words

6-letter words

13 words

5-letter words

26 words

4-letter words

39 words

3-letter words

39 words

2-letter words

14 words

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

A single letter you can add to trephine to make another valid word.

Find your best play with trephine

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes trephine, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.