cervix
Americannoun
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cervixes,
plural
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cervices
plural
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the neck, especially the back part.
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any necklike part, especially the constricted lower end of the uterus.
noun
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the technical name for neck
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any necklike part of an organ, esp the lower part of the uterus that extends into the vagina
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cervix
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin cervīx “neck, nape, uterine cervix”
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How does cervix compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They found evidence of EXO1 overproduction in multiple cancer types, including tumors of the breast, skin, liver and cervix, consistent with earlier research.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026
She quickly discovered that available pelvic models have hard plastic shells around the cervix where providers practice injecting; this prevents trainees from getting the necessary tactile feedback to learn where to inject.
From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2026
For 40 hours, Barnica waited in the hospital for the heartbeat to stop, with her cervix exposed to bacteria.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
It is used to end pregnancies through 10 weeks gestation in combination with the drug misoprostol, which stimulates contractions and softens the cervix, allowing tissue to expel.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
She’s simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world’s first immortal human cells—her cells, cut from her cervix just months before she died.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
People in their 20s with cervices need Pap smears every three years, although the interval may be shorter if you’ve had abnormal results in the past.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 16, 2022
Currently, the vast majority of HPV diagnoses in people with cervices are found via Pap smears that analyze tissue scraped from the cervix itself.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2021
Next time Niobe turned up was at memorial cervices for Bloodgood H. Cutter, "the Long Island Farmer Poet."
From Time Magazine Archive
This is the generation of American women that reinvented feminism, wrote Our Bodies, Ourselves, and learned to examine their cervices with mirrors.
From Time Magazine Archive
This results in a double uterus, which may also have two cervixes and two vaginal canals.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2025
She said the campaign team has heard from many within the LGBTQ+ community, particularly from those who have cervixes but do not identify as women.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2023
Whole sets of teeth, tonsils, cervixes and colons were lost or mutilated in this pursuit.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2022
Hern proved them wrong, pioneering new approaches to make later abortions safer, including dilating cervixes with Japanese seaweed tubes called laminaria.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2022
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
