Meaning
pit, hole
- pit, hole, ditch
- grave
- fossa, cavity (anatomy)
In a sentence
Attento, c'è una fossa profonda in mezzo alla strada.
Watch out, there's a deep hole in the middle of the road.
Hanno scavato una fossa per il cane in giardino.
They dug a grave for the dog in the yard.
L'auto è finita in una fossa sul ciglio della strada.
The car ended up in a ditch on the side of the road.
Word forms (2)
| Word | Word forms |
|---|---|
| fossa | feminine · singular |
| fosse | feminine · plural |
Usage notes
- For an ordinary hole in the ground, buca is often more common; fossa sounds more technical, fixed, or excavated.
- For a grave, tomba is the usual everyday word; fossa is common in formal, historical, or collective-burial contexts.
- In anatomy and zoology, fossa appears in fixed technical names; don’t replace it with buca or foro.