Unfissured

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Not having cracks or breaks in a surface
2. remaining intact and whole without any separations
3. characterized by a smooth and consistent structure free from fissures

Etymology: "Unfissured" is simply the English prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to "fissured," which describes a surface marked by long, narrow cracks or clefts. "Fissured" itself comes from "fissure," borrowed from French and ultimately from the Latin "fissura," a cleft, which derives from "findere," to split. So the whole word, read literally, means "not split apart" or "not cleaved." The pattern is an ordinary one: English has long combined "un-" with adjectives to form their opposites, so "unfissured" turns a word describing cracked rock, weathered bark or split enamel into a description of smooth, unbroken surfaces. Its use is mainly technical and descriptive, appearing in geology, anatomy and botany, where a sharp contrast between fissured and unfissured surfaces matters.

Synonyms: solid, whole, continuous

Antonyms: fissured, broken, divided