n., pl., -ni·ums, or -ni·a (-nē-ə).
- The skull of a vertebrate.
- The portion of the skull enclosing the brain; the braincase.
[Middle English craneum, from Medieval Latin crānium, from Greek krānion.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
