tailbone

[teyl-bohn]

noun

Anatomy.

1. the coccyx.

tailbone

1. See coccyx

Word History and Origins

Origin of tailbone¹

First recorded in 1540–50; tail ¹ + bone

Example Sentences

Companies have skimped on dividends amid an epic bull run for stock prices, leaving the S&P 500’s yield of just 1.1% looking like finance’s vestigial tailbone—an evolutionary holdover without a clear purpose.

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"I was like, 'Trust me, she's a performer, but she actually just fell and broke her tailbone... and she's in a wheelchair'," the actor says.

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Ducks coach Dana Altman said Dante had a bruised tailbone.

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He missed time during Washington’s 2023 fall camp, too, after bruising his tailbone so badly he was unable to get in his defensive stance or even sit down for weeks.

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Following this evolutionary split, the group of apes that includes present-day humans evolved the formation of fewer tail vertebrae, giving rise to the coccyx, or tailbone.

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