scar
UK/skɑː(ɹ)/US/skɑɹ/
scar noun: a permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
Noun (1)
scar (plural scars)
- A permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
- A permanent negative effect on someone's mind, caused by a traumatic experience.
- Thus, it is wise to avoid cultivating an emotional scar, as it can play havoc with your happiness and success.2011, O. P. Sharma, Be a Winner, →ISBN
- Any permanent mark resulting from damage.
- Her age-old weapons, flood and fire, left scars on the canyon which time will never efface.1961, Dorothy Jensen Neal, Captive mountain waters: a story of pipelines and people, page 29
- But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line...1965 June 4, Johnson, Lyndon B., Howard University Commencement Address
Verb
scar (third-person singular simple present scars, present participle scarring, simple past and past participle scarred)
- To mark the skin permanently.
- Yet I'll not shed her blood; / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- To form a scar.
- Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet...1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 157
- And black skin scars badly. Whatʼs left behind stays pink and angry, always.2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 161
- To affect deeply in a traumatic manner.
- Seeing his parents die in a car crash scarred him for life.
Noun (2)
scar (plural scars)
- A cliff or rock outcrop.
- O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, / And thinner, clearer, farther going! / O sweet and far from cliff and scar / The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!1847, Tennyson, “The Bugle Song”, in The Princess
- All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another. “Hi!” it said. “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth...1954, William Golding, chapter 1, in Lord of the Flies, Penguin
- A rock in the sea breaking out from the surface of the water.
- A bare rocky place on the side of a hill or mountain.
Noun (3)
scar (plural scars)
- A marine food fish, the scarus or parrotfish (family Scaridae).
scar meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
scar in Hindi
- permanent mark on the skin
- दाग़ dāġ, निशान niśān
scar in Tamil
- permanent mark on the skin
- தழும்பு taḻumpu, வடு vaṭu
- permanent negative mark on the mind
- தழும்பு taḻumpu
scar in Marathi
- permanent mark on the skin
- व्रण vraṇ
scar in Urdu
- permanent mark on the skin
- داغ dāġ, نِشان niśān
More languagesFewer languages
- scar in Bengali
- দাগ, ক্ষতচিহ্ন
- scar in Telugu
- మచ్చ macca
- scar in Malayalam
- പാട്, വടു
- scar in Kannada
- ಗಾಯದ ಗುರುತು, ಕಲೆ, ಮಚ್ಚೆ, ಜಡ್ಡು
- scar in Punjabi
- ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨ niśān
- scar in Odia
- ଅବଟ abaṭa
- scar in Sanskrit
- किण kiṇa
- scar in Nepali
- दाग dāg
- scar in Tagalog
- peklat
- scar in Arabic
- نَدْبَة nadba, نَدْب nadb
- scar in Malay
- parut
- scar in Indonesian
- parut
- scar in Thai
- แผลเป็น plɛ̌ɛ-bpen, ปม bpom
- scar in Vietnamese
- sẹo, thẹo
- scar in Myanmar
- အနာရွတ် a.narwat, အမာရွတ် a.marwat
Examples of scar in a sentence
- There is a real scar on the landscape, but it reminds me exactly of scenes I photographed from the construction of High Speed 1 in Kent and Essex, and of the Norton Bridge flyover in Staffordshire.2022 March 23, Paul Bigland, “HS2 is just 'passing through'”, in RAIL, number 953, page 44:
- All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat.1954, William Golding, chapter 1, in Lord of the Flies, Penguin:
Synonyms of scar
Forms of scar
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scars |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scars |
| present participle | scarring |
| past participle | scarred |
| past | scarred |
Origin of scar
From Middle English scar, scarre, a conflation of Old French escare (“scab”) (from Late Latin eschara, from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “scab left from a burn”), and thus a doublet of eschar) and Middle English skar (“incision, cut, fissure”) (from Old Norse skarð (“notch, chink, gap”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“gap, cut, fragment”)). Akin to Old Norse skor (“notch, score”), Old English sċeard (“gap, cut, notch”). More at shard. Displaced native Old English dolg, dolgswæþ, and wundswaþu (“scar”). Not related to scarify.
From Middle English scarre, skarr, skerre, sker, a borrowing from Old Norse sker (“an isolated rock in the sea; skerry”). Cognate with Icelandic sker, Norwegian skjær, Swedish skär, Danish skær, German Schäre. Doublet of skerry and scaur.
From Latin scarus (“a kind of fish”), from Ancient Greek σκάρος (skáros, “parrot wrasse, Sparisoma cretense, syn. Scarus cretensis”).
Words formed from scar
Phrases with scar
Words that rhyme with scar
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- water bar
- char
- tar
- var
- AAR
- bazaar
- caviar
- lodestar
- Mullingar
- Myanmar
- ajar
- arr
- barre
- boudoir
- cigar
- cymar
- czar
- disbar
- gar
- guitar
- haar
- instar
- lar
- Loire
- noir
- NPR
- omar
- schwar
- their
- tl;dr
- tsar
- TTR
- upbar
- USSR
- yar
- -dar
- AGR
- alcazar
- armoire
- au revoir
- bahar
- baignoire
- Bashar
- beaux-arts
- beer bar
- Berger Picard
- Bihar
- bête noire
Questions about scar
- What does scar mean?
- Scar means a permanent mark on the skin, sometimes caused by the healing of a wound.
- What is scar in Hindi?
- Scar in Hindi is दाग़ (dāġ), निशान (niśān). See Scar meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use scar in a sentence?
- There is a real scar on the landscape, but it reminds me exactly of scenes I photographed from the construction of High Speed 1 in Kent and Essex, and of the Norton Bridge flyover in Staffordshire.
- What part of speech is scar?
- Scar can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scar?
- Scar is pronounced /skɑɹ/ (US).
- What is the plural of scar?
- The plural of scar is scars.
Words near scar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scar (page history and authors); scar (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scar (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scar (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଅବଟ (Odia) (page history and authors); किण (Sanskrit) (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: en-ca-scar.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.