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-cephalic

Also ‑cephalous, ‑cephalus, and ‑cephaly.

The head.

Greek kephalē, head.

Adjectives in ‑cephalic and ‑cephalous are usually equivalent in meaning, though the former is more common. Examples are hydrocephalic (literally, having water on the head) in reference to a child suffering from an enlarged head because of fluid retention; brachycephalic (Greek brakhus, short), having a relatively broad, short skull; microcephalic (Greek mikros, small), abnormal smallness of the head, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development; bicephalous (Latin bi, having two), having two heads.

Nouns in ‑cephalus or ‑cephaly refer to the condition: hydrocephalus; microcephaly; macrocephalus; plagiocephaly (Greek plagios, slanting), oblique deformity of the head. With the exception of hydrocephalus, forms in ‑cephalus are generally less common than those in ‑cephaly.

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