anatomy

American  

[uh-nat-uh-mee] / əˈnæt ə mi /

noun

anatomies plural

1. the science dealing with the structure of animals and plants.

2. the structure of an animal or plant, or of any of its parts.

3. dissection of all or part of an animal or plant in order to study its structure.

4. a plant or animal that has been or will be dissected, or a model of such a dissected organism.

5. a skeleton.

6. Informal. the human body.

7. an analysis or minute examination.

---

anatomy British  

/ əˈnætəmɪ /

noun

1. the science concerned with the physical structure of animals and plants

2. the physical structure of an animal or plant or any of its parts

3. a book or treatise on this subject

4. dissection of an animal or plant

5. any detailed analysis

   the anatomy of a crime

6. informal the human body

---

anatomy Scientific  

/ ə-năt′ə-mē /

1. The structure of an organism or any of its parts.

2. The scientific study of the shape and structure of organisms and their parts.

---

anatomy Cultural  

1. The structure of an animal or plant; also, the study of this structure through techniques such as microscopic observation and dissection. (Compare morphology and physiology.)

---

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• anatomies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of anatomy

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin anatomia, from Greek anatom(ḗ) “dissection” (from ana- ana- + tomḗ “a cutting,” noun derivative of témnein “to cut”) + -ia -y ³

Explanation

If you're studying anatomy you're studying animals’ bodies and you're probably dissecting them, too. You might study the anatomy of a pig to see how it relates to human anatomy. You’ll find that only one of them has a snout. Ever heard of Gray's Anatomy — not the TV show, but the 1858 medical textbook by Henry Gray? It’s been revised many times, but it’s still the standard text, with detailed descriptions of the parts of the human body. The word anatomy can apply to anything you're analyzing in detail. If you're writing an anatomy of your piano, you'll describe the parts and how they work. Anatomy goes back to the Greek roots ana, meaning "up," and temnein "to cut."

Example Sentences

Signatories included French superstar Juliette Binoche as well as director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning "Anatomy of a Fall" in 2023 and is premiering his film "The Unknown" in the main competition in Cannes.

From Barron's • May 17, 2026

The fossils were excavated in a remote region of the central Sahara by a 20 member research team led by Paul Sereno, PhD, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago.

From Science Daily • Feb. 23, 2026

Before that, he was perhaps best known as Dr Mark Sloan, or 'Dr McSteamy', on medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2026

Thus began one of the strangest incidents in American history, which Andy McPhee documents in “The Doctors’ Riot of 1788: Body Snatching, Bloodletting, and Anatomy in America.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 5, 2026

The fruits of their labours appeared in a book with the splendid title Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris: or, the Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin