Keloid

/[ˈkiː.lɔɪd]/ noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A hard raised growth of scar tissue at the site of an injury.

    "It gave her otherwise plain face a broken excitement and blue-blade threat like the keloid scar of the razored man who sometimes played checkers with her grandmother."

  2. 2
    raised pinkish scar tissue at the site of an injury; results from excessive tissue repair wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To form a keloid. intransitive

    "The scar on his neck from running through that plate glass on one of our licks has keloided smooth and shiny."

Example

More examples

"It gave her otherwise plain face a broken excitement and blue-blade threat like the keloid scar of the razored man who sometimes played checkers with her grandmother."

Etymology

19th century, from French chéloïde, from Ancient Greek χηλή (khēlḗ, “hoof”) and -oid.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.