scission means the act of division, separation, cutting, cleaving, or severing; cleavage. It carries an Arena rating of 1771, earned across 31 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, scission ranks #569 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #742 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #994 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,519 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
scission is pronounced /ˈsɪ.ʒən/.
Why “scission” is a great word
SCISSION — [Noun] The act of cutting, dividing, or cleaving. From Middle English and Old French, from Late Latin scissionem (nominative scissio, "a cleaving, dividing"), from Latin scindere ("to split, cut"). First attested in English in the mid-15th century. Unlike "schism," which formalizes a doctrinal rupture, or "cleavage," which implies splitting along a natural plane, scission denotes the pure, decisive act of severance itself. It is the surgeon's blade parting tissue, the political faction's final vote to splinter, and the quiet, irrevocable snap of a taut thread—the precise moment a whole becomes parts, forever altered by the new space between them.
Etymology
Via Middle English and Old French, from Late Latin scissio, scissionem, from Latin scindere.
noun
- The act of division, separation, cutting, cleaving, or severing; cleavage.e.g.“The resulting delamination of the two lipid monolayers causes a “lens” to form, the further growth of which creates a spherical droplet that is then released by scission at the neck.” — 2012, Harvey Lodish, Arnold Berk, Chris A. Kaiser, Loose-leaf Version for Molecular Cell Biology, page 455:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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