osseous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- interosseous adjective
- osseously adverb
- postosseous adjective
Etymology
Origin of osseous
1675–85; < Latin osseus bony, equivalent to oss- (stem of os ) bone + -eus -eous
Explanation
Osseous means bony. If your next door neighbor buried their old pet cat in their yard, watch that your dog doesn’t go digging over there, looking for an osseous treat. Osseous comes from the Latin word for bone, oss. You can use osseous to describe things that are literally made of bone, like the osseous structure of your skeleton. You can also use osseous to describe things that have hardened like bones. You might find an osseous piece of taffy in your coat pocket, left there last summer. In that case you could say the taffy ossified.
Vocabulary lists containing osseous
100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Body Language: Os, Osteo ("Bone")
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
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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.
“Accordingly, the osseous material recovered in the Ko’olau Mountains, Island of Oaha, Hawaii…represent human remains originating from Ensign DeMoss.”
From Washington Times • Jun. 3, 2018
It may be rather obvious by now that I'm rather besotted with all things osseous.
From BBC • Feb. 18, 2014
As a result of the loss of bone density, the osseous tissue may not provide adequate support for everyday functions, and something as simple as a sneeze can cause a vertebral fracture.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
The epiphyseal plate, a layer of hyaline cartilage, is replaced by osseous tissue as the organ grows in length.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
At the union of these planes the bone forms an elbow, on either side of which are found the osseous processes on which the horns are mounted.
From Artistic Anatomy of Animals by Cuyer, ?douard
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.
