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: a small straight thin-bladed knife used especially in surgery
Examples of scalpel in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Zachary Basu, Marc Caputo Feb 3, 2025 - Politics & Policy
Musk's wrecking ball pierces government's inner sanctum
Elon Musk and his cost-slashing allies are taking a hammer to the massive bureaucracy that staffs the U.S. government — and a scalpel to any senior officials who dare put up a fight.
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Sam Sabin, Axios, 7 Feb. 2025
There are close-ups of scalpels cutting into skin and glimpses of the human body in various states of mangled and bloody distress.
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Nina Metz, Twin Cities, 10 Jan. 2025
Tilbrook spoke the Queen’s English with scalpel precision and embodied an inheritance of cultural knowledge dating back 45,000 years or more.
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Kevin West, Travel + Leisure, 24 Nov. 2024
Instead of cutting into the human body with a scalpel, the nanorobots can move through veins and arteries, to do things like handle aneurysms or occlusions, for instance, or prevent cardiac events.
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John Werner, Forbes, 10 Jan. 2025
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Word History
Etymology
Latin scalpellus, scalpellum, diminutive of scalper, scalprum chisel, knife, from scalpere to scratch, carve
First Known Use
1742, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near scalpel
Cite this Entry
“Scalpel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scalpel. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
Kids Definition
scalpel
noun
scal·pel
ˈskal-pəl
also skal-ˈpel
: a small straight thin-bladed knife used especially in surgery
Medical Definition
scalpel
noun
scal·pel
ˈskal-pəl also skal-ˈpel
: a small straight thin-bladed knife used especially in surgery
More from Merriam-Webster on scalpel
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for scalpel
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