fossa
/ˈfɒsə/US/ˈfɑsə/
fossa noun: a pit, groove, cavity, or depression.
Noun (1)
fossa (plural fossae or (obsolete) fossæ)
- A pit, groove, cavity, or depression.
- A long, narrow, shallow depression on the body of an extraterrestrial body, such as a planet or moon.
Noun (2)
UK/ˈfuː.sə/US/ˈfɑ.sə/
fossa (plural fossas)
- A large nocturnal reddish-brown catlike mammal (Cryptoprocta ferox) of the civet family, endemic to the rainforests of Madagascar. It is slender, long-tailed and has retractile claws and anal scent glands.
fossa meaning in Tamil, Assamese, Arabic and Thai
fossa in Tamil
- குழிவு அமைப்பு, ஏந்தல், குழி, குழிவு, பள்ளம்
fossa in Assamese
- Cryptoprocta ferox
- ফছা phosa
fossa in Arabic
- Cryptoprocta ferox
- فوسا fōsa
fossa in Thai
- Cryptoprocta ferox
- ฟอสซา
Examples of fossa in a sentence
- The transducer is placed at the paralumbar fossa and then moved ventrally to the midline.
- The pseudosylvian sulcus is weakly present, and it is located just above the temporal fossa.
- Dias and Albright reported a series of 58 patients with posterior fossa tumors and hydrocephalus.
Forms of fossa
| plural | fossae |
|---|---|
| plural | fossas |
| plural (obsolete) | fossæ |
Origin of fossa
Unadapted borrowing from Latin fossa (“a ditch, trench, fosse”). Doublet of fosse.
[Alt: Cryptoprocta ferox Borrowing from Malagasy fosa which likely once referred to the Malayan weasel (Mustela nudipes) prior to a semantic shift, thus cognate with Malay pusak and Tagalog pusa both meaning "cat".
Words formed from fossa
Phrases with fossa
- iliac fossa
- nasal fossa
- cubital fossa
- glenoid fossa
- incisive fossa
- piriform fossa
- rhomboid fossa
- temporal fossa
- popliteal fossa
- suprainiac fossa
- infratemporal fossa
- fossa of Rosenmüller
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with fossa
Questions about fossa
- What does fossa mean?
- Fossa means a pit, groove, cavity, or depression.
- What is fossa in Tamil?
- Fossa in Tamil is குழிவு அமைப்பு, ஏந்தல், குழி. See Fossa meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fossa?
- Fossa is a noun.
- How do you pronounce fossa?
- Fossa is pronounced /ˈfɒsə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fossa?
- The plural of fossa is fossae.
Words near fossa in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fossa (page history and authors); fossa (Tamil 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fossa.wav.
Cite this entry: “fossa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fossa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.