callus
UK/ˈkæləs/
callus noun: a hardened area of the skin (especially on the foot or hand) caused by repeated friction, wear or use.
Noun
callus (countable and uncountable, plural calluses or (hypercorrect) calli)
- A hardened area of the skin (especially on the foot or hand) caused by repeated friction, wear or use.
- Sylvanshine had once been on a first date with a Xerox rep who had complex and slightly repulsive patterns of callus on her fingers from playing the banjo semi-professionally2011, David Foster Wallace, The Pale King, page 17
- The material of repair in fractures of bone; a substance exuded at the site of fracture, which is at first soft or cartilaginous in consistency, but is ultimately converted into true bone and unites the fragments into a single piece.
- The new formation over the end of a cutting, before it puts out rootlets.
- In orchids, a fleshy outgrowth from the labellum.
- In grasses, a hardened extension from the base of a floret, which may or may not elongate and is often covered in hairs or bristles.
- A shining area on the frons of many species of Tabanomorpha (horse flies and relatives).
Verb
callus (third-person singular simple present calluses, present participle callusing, simple past and past participle callused)
- To form such hardened tissue.
callus meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog
callus in Tamil
- காய்ப்பு, இளவினைவெலும்பு, எலும்பு ஒட்டு, கல் முண்டு, தோற்றடிப்பு, தோல் காய்ப்பு
callus in Malayalam
- callus
- തഴമ്പ് taḻampŭ
callus in Kannada
- ಜಡ್ಡುಗಟ್ಟಿದ ಭಾಗ, ಗಡಸುಗಟ್ಟಿದ ಭಾಗ, ಗಂಟು
callus in Tagalog
- hardened part of the skin
- lipak, kalyo
More languagesFewer languages
- callus in Arabic
- جُسْأَة jusʔa, الكالس النباتات
- callus in Malay
- belulang, kalus
- callus in Persian
- پینه pine, شغه šoġe, کلخچ kalaxč
- callus in Thai
- ผิวหนังที่ด้านหนา pĭw năng têe dâan năa
- callus in Vietnamese
- chai
Examples of callus in a sentence
- You will develop calluses if you play the cello.
- Increases of auxin up to 12 mg L–1 did not alter the shooty morphology of the callus.
- And she took good care of my feet, massaging them and loofahing the calluses away.
Forms of callus
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | calluses |
| plural hypercorrect | calli |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | calluses |
| present participle | callusing |
| past participle | callused |
| past | callused |
Origin of callus
Borrowed from Latin callum (“hard skin”). Displaced Old English wearr.
Words formed from callus
Words that rhyme with callus
Questions about callus
- What does callus mean?
- Callus means a hardened area of the skin (especially on the foot or hand) caused by repeated friction, wear or use.
- What is callus in Tamil?
- Callus in Tamil is காய்ப்பு, இளவினைவெலும்பு, எலும்பு ஒட்டு. See Callus meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is callus?
- Callus can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce callus?
- Callus is pronounced /ˈkæləs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of callus?
- The plural of callus is calluses.
Words near callus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: callus (page history and authors); callus (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); തഴമ്പ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); callus (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-callus.wav.
Cite this entry: “callus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/callus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.