Word.ws English Dictionary

tearline

tearline is the alternative form of tear line.

Meaning of tear line

Noun (1)

tear line (plural tear lines)

  1. In a classified intelligence report, the point at which the confidential version of a report ends (often marked by a series of dashes), and a sanitized version suitable for sharing with the public begins.
    • Where source-revealing information must necessarily be included, the Commission strongly recommends the use of a tear line. Those who need to know how the information was derived will have access to the information above the tear line, marked SECRET COMPARTMENTED ACCESS. Those who need to act on...1994, Joint Security Commission, Redefining Security: A Report to the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence. Unclassified., page 14
  2. A perforated or printed dotted line along which paper may be torn or cut.

Noun (2)

tear line (plural tear lines)

  1. The meniscus of lacrimal fluid between the eyeball and eyelid.

Forms of tearline

pluraltearlines

Questions about tearline

What is tearline the alternative form of?
Tearline is the alternative form of tear line.

Words near tearline in the dictionary

  1. tearlessly
  2. tearlessness
  3. tearlet
  4. tearlets
  5. tearlike
  6. tearline
  7. tearlines
  8. tearme
  9. tearmes
  10. tearoff
  11. tearoffs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tearline (page history and authors); tear line (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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Cite this entry: “tearline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tearline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.