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shinbone

American  
[shin-bohn] / ˈʃɪnˌboʊn /

noun

  1. the tibia.

shinbone British  
/ ˈʃɪnˌbəʊn /

noun

  1. the nontechnical name for tibia

"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

Etymology

Origin of shinbone

before 1000; Middle English; Old English scinbān. See shin 1, bone

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.

Vonn suffered a complex fracture in her left tibia or shinbone, the larger and stronger of the two bones in the lower leg.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

The condition, which strikes many young athletes, causes painful inflammation of the growth plate just above the shinbone.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026

Croatia international Gvardiol, 23, recently had surgery after breaking his shinbone in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea, while Portugal centre-back Dias, 28, is out for about four to six weeks with a hamstring injury.

From BBC • Jan. 16, 2026

In 1994, Kenyan paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey and her team found more than 80 fossils of teeth, jaws, a partial arm, and shinbone at two sites near Lake Turkana in Kenya.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024

Christopher laughed, and the squirrel ran up his shinbone to his knee.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

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.