femur

[ fee-mer ]

noun

, plural fe·murs, fem·o·ra [fem, -er-, uh].

1. Anatomy. a bone in the human leg extending from the pelvis to the knee, that is the longest, largest, and strongest in the body; thighbone.
2. Zoology. a corresponding bone of the leg or hind limb of an animal.
3. Entomology. the third segment of the leg of an insect (counting from the base), situated between the trochanter and the tibia.

femur

/ ˈfiːmə /

noun

1. the longest thickest bone of the human skeleton, articulating with the pelvis above and the knee below Nontechnical namethighbone
2. the corresponding bone in other vertebrates
3. the segment of an insect's leg nearest to the body

femur

/ fē′mər /

1. The long bone of the thigh or of the upper portion of the hind leg.
2. See more at skeleton

Word History and Origins

Origin of femur¹

1555–65; < Latin: thigh

Word History and Origins

Origin of femur¹

C18: from Latin: thigh

Example Sentences

One of the most important new insights is about the structure of the creature’s femur.

From Science News

The femur bones of the leg are sometimes only two or three cells thick.

From Science News For Students

You don’t want to risk flying into the woods and breaking your back, or crashing and tumbling and blowing up your knee or breaking your femur.

From Outside Online

He is the man who blessed us with a taller set of femurs than Halloween celebrators knew they wanted.

From Washington Post

Typically, overpronation goes hand-in-hand with excessive internal rotation of the femurs, which you can see in the video below.

From Outside Online

The results were awful: marked osteoporosis in the spine, hip, and femur.

From The Daily Beast

One guy fell in front of me and broke his back in two places, both his feet, and his right femur.

From The Daily Beast

In July 2008, I learned that I had a seven-inch cancerous tumor in my left femur.

From The Daily Beast

The sudden cure of advanced paresis would be as much a miracle as the sudden replacing of a lost femur.

From Project Gutenberg

Let one part, that in the centre, form a "femur" (in Greek μηρὁς).

From Project Gutenberg

As an adaptation to saltation the tibia would elongate at the expense of the femur and the index would be more than 100.

From Project Gutenberg

The femur is short and curved, and the articular ends are disproportionately large as judged by modern standards.

From Project Gutenberg

It never shows the mark of the ligamentous attachment to the head of the femur, which is seen in Mammals.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• groin