Pocklike

Pocklike is an adjective used to describe surfaces or features that resemble pocks—small, shallow, rounded pits or depressions often left by healed lesions. The term conveys a cratered or dimpled relief without asserting a specific cause.

In medical and dermatological contexts, pocklike describes skin topography that resembles pockmarks. Pocklike scars or pits are depressed, rounded areas that can have smooth or irregular margins and may result from healing after inflammatory or infectious lesions such as acne, varicella (chickenpox), or smallpox. The description emphasizes the appearance of residual pits rather than the underlying disease process.

Outside of medicine, pocklike is used in geology, archaeology, and other fields to characterize surfaces with similar pit patterns. For example, terrain or rock surfaces may be described as pocklike if they feature a field of shallow pits, while certain fossils or plant surfaces may exhibit pocklike textures.

Etymology-wise, the word derives from pock, referring to lesions associated with smallpox, combined with the suffix -like to indicate resemblance. The term is relatively specialized and is typically found in descriptive or comparative passages rather than as a formal diagnosis.

See also: pockmark, scar, crater, pit, crateriform.