scarify

1. 1.

   puncture and scar (the skin), as for purposes or tribal identification or rituals

   “The men in some African tribes scarify their faces”

   Broaderpuncture
2. 2.

   scratch the surface of

   “scarify seeds”

   Broaderscore
3. 3.

   break up

   “scarify soil”

   Broaderloosen

Other forms of scarify

past tense or participle

scarified

present participle

scarifying·

third person

scarifies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about scarify

What does scarify mean?

scarify means "puncture and scar (the skin), as for purposes or tribal identification or rituals". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in scarify?

scarify has 3 syllables: sca-ri-fy. The stress falls on "sca".

Is scarify a common word?

scarify is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.