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cutaneous

adjective

Simple meaning

Of, about, existing on, or affecting the exterior skin.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kyootayneeuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kjuˈteɪniəs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. anatomyzoology

    Of, relating to, existing on, or affecting the exterior skin, especially the cutis.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: Of, relating to, existing on, or affecting the exterior skin, especially the cutis.

Used this way, cutaneous is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Medicine/healthcare
  • Science
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

cutaneous nervecutaneous leishmaniasiscutaneous branchcutaneous surfacecutaneous diseasecutaneous bloodcutaneous melanomacutaneous sensibility

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cutaneous anthraxnounCompound term

    A form of anthrax infection that begins as papule that becomes a vesicle and breaks with a discharge of toxins.

  • cutaneous sensationnounCompound term

    A sensation localized on the skin.

  • cutaneous sensesnounCompound term

    The faculty by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body (especially the hands).

  • cutaneous veinnounCompound term

    One of a number of veins in the subcutaneous tissue that empty into deep veins.

  • cutaneous leishmaniasisnounCompound term

    Leishmaniasis of the skin.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.