hyoid

American  

[hahy-oid] / ˈhaɪ ɔɪd /

adjective

1. Also hyoidal hyoidean noting or pertaining to a U -shaped bone at the root of the tongue in humans, or a corresponding bone or collection of bones in animals.

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noun

1. the hyoid bone.

hyoid British  

/ ˈhaɪɔɪd /

adjective

1. of or relating to the hyoid bone

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noun

1. the horseshoe-shaped bone that lies at the base of the tongue and above the thyroid cartilage

2. a corresponding bone or group of bones in other vertebrates

Other Word Forms

• posthyoid
  adjective
• subhyoid
  adjective
• subhyoidean
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of hyoid

1700–10; < New Latin hȳoïdes < Greek hȳoeidḗs, shaped like the letter hypsilon (i.e. upsilon), equivalent to hȳ- (derivative of letter name hŷ, variant of ŷ; see upsilon) + -oeidēs -oid

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hyoid

To determine the animal's age at death, they examined a rarely studied bone known as the ceratobranchial, or hyoid, which was preserved with the skull.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2026

To do so, Dr. Griffin assembled a team to create a broad comparative dataset of hyoid samples from living lizards, crocodiles, birds, and extinct dinosaurs.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 9, 2025

Another gill arch eventually evolved into a head bone called the hyoid.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 1, 2023

Known placoderms have at most five gill arches, others having evolved into jaws and the hyoid, so the pectoral girdle derives from what was once the sixth gill arch, Brazeau’s team concludes.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 1, 2023

As the most developed pair in birds they are commonly, although wrongly, called the hyoid horns.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various