spinal column

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noun

the series of vertebrae in a vertebrate animal forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord; spine; backbone.

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Also called vertebral column.

Origin of spinal column

First recorded in 1830–40

Words nearby spinal column

spinal anesthesia, spinal artery, spinal atrophy, spinal block, spinal canal, spinal column, spinal concussion, spinal cord, spinal curvature, spinal decompression, spinal fluid

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use spinal column in a sentence

Whenever you stretch a muscle, these sensory receptors tell neurons within the muscle to fire a signal back to the central nervous system through the spinal column.
Why can’t we all touch our toes?|Claire Maldarelli|September 30, 2021|Popular-Science
Adult lampreys have a spinal column and swim through the water in search of fish, which they latch onto and bleed out with a tooth-filled mouth.
These fossilized lamprey hatchlings disprove an age-old evolutionary theory|Philip Kiefer|March 11, 2021|Popular-Science
Sometimes a column has the economy and rhythm of a short story.
The Best Columns of 2014|John Avlon, Errol Louis|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Later that night, that same black-and-red banner would be seen again—in the column of marchers chanting for dead cops.
The Monsters Who Screamed for Dead Cops|Jacob Siegel|December 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

He branded it a fifth-column invasion into popular culture, normalizing radical, even communist ambitions.
Glenn Beck Is Now Selling Hipster Clothes. Really.|Ana Marie Cox|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
My editor called and said, “Do a column on this Lena Dunham flap!”
Up to a Point: They Made Me Write About Lena Dunham|P. J. O’Rourke|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His sign was the last one people saw as the column of marchers passed them, it read, “Am I next?”
‘They Let Him Off?’ Scenes from NYC in Disbelief|Jacob Siegel|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
My two eyes haven't quite the same focal length and this often puts me out of the straight with a column of figures.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
He leaned against that same stone column, thinking, searching in his mind, feeling acutely.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
Track of the count may be kept by placing a mark for each leukocyte in its appropriate column, ruled upon paper.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The last thing—against the skyline—a little column of French soldiers of the line charging back upwards towards the lost redoubt.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for spinal column

spinal column

noun

a series of contiguous or interconnecting bony or cartilaginous segments that surround and protect the spinal cordAlso called: spine, vertebral column, rachis Nontechnical name: backbone

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

Medical definitions for spinal column

spinal column

The series of articulated vertebrae, separated by intervertebral disks and held together by muscles and tendons, that extends from the cranium to the coccyx, encasing the spinal cord and forming the supporting axis of the body.backbone rachis spine vertebral column