femur

[ fee-mer ]

See synonyms for femur on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural fe·murs, fem·o·ra

[fem-er-uh]. /ˈfɛm ər ə/.

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.
Zoology. a corresponding bone of the leg or hind limb of an animal.

Entomology. the third segment of the leg of an insect (counting from the base), situated between the trochanter and the tibia.

Origin of femur

1555–65; <Latin: thigh

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use femur in a sentence

There are neat stacks of femurs and units that contain whole bodies, still intact and starkly white.
Did the Virgin Mary Warn Rwanda’s Holiest Town of the Genocide? | Nina Strochlic | April 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He has strong, short, sharp spines on the femurs and on the tibias.
The Insect Folk | Margaret Warner Morley
He rubs the inside of his femurs against the outside of his wings.
The Insect Folk | Margaret Warner Morley

British Dictionary definitions for femur

femur

/ (ˈfiːmə) /

nounplural femurs or femora (ˈfɛmərə)

the longest thickest bone of the human skeleton, articulating with the pelvis above and the knee below: Nontechnical name: thighbone
the corresponding bone in other vertebrates

the segment of an insect's leg nearest to the body

Origin of femur

C18: from Latin: thigh

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for femur

femur

[ fē′mər ]

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

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