torso
Americannoun
-
torsos,
plural
-
torsi
plural
-
the trunk of the human body.
-
a sculptured form representing the trunk of a nude female or male figure.
-
something mutilated or incomplete.
noun
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the trunk of the human body
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a statue of a nude human trunk, esp without the head or limbs
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something regarded as incomplete or truncated
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of torso
1715–25; < Italian: stalk, trunk of statue < Latin thyrsus < Greek thýrsos wand, stem
Explanation
A torso is the trunk of a human body — minus arms, legs, and head. Anatomically, your torso's job is to protect your internal organs, like your heart, lungs, and kidney, which are all protected by your rib cage. A statue of a torso in a museum, usually ancient Greek or Roman, is that of the trunk of a human body. These works of art, often carved from marble, are so old that they've frequently lost their arms and heads — but still, the sturdy torso remains. Originally torso only referred to the trunk of a statue, from the Greek root thyrsos, "stalk or stem of a plant." Then, around the 1860s, it began referring human trunks as well.
Vocabulary lists containing torso
The Crossover
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"A Rose for Emily"
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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.
See Examples For:
His torso rises like a mountain, his head a shining peak, swept as if by the shadows of passing clouds against an otherwise atmospheric expanse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
The Tiangong Omni swivels its torso wildly from side to side while waving its bent arms in front of its face.
From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026
Mexican side Club America's new home shirt is inspired by one worn during the 1998-99 season, with the club's crest blown up across the torso.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Maybe it’s just disorienting because no one anticipated gawking at his torso inside the historic downtown Los Angeles venue founded by Hollywood legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
Holly tucked the Hummingbirds close to her torso, dropping into a controlled dive.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
In addition to these works, that garden was full of torsi of men and women, which were a school not only for Mariotto, but for all the sculptors and painters of his time.
From Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Vol. 04 (of 10), Filippino Lippi to Domenico Puligo by Gaston du C. De Vere
Andrea, then, was wont to cast in moulds of this material such natural objects as hands, feet, knees, legs, arms, and torsi, in order to have them before him and imitate them with greater convenience.
From Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Vol. 03 (of 10), Filarete and Simone to Mantegna by Gaston du C. De Vere
"Women today are wearing flat plates that have been designed for male torsos," explains Erin Grieve, from NP Aerospace.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The first Roman Torlonia acquired important antique sculptures assembled by earlier collectors, with everything restored to perfection—no missing noses or limbless torsos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
In 1993, to raise awareness about breast cancer, she made plaster casts of hundreds of women’s torsos and placed them in a cemetery-like installation on a lawn.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025
Moments earlier, however, members of the supporting cast were smearing blood over each other’s torsos in a heavy-handed metaphor for their moral complicity in Jesus’s demise.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Robot limbs and torsos were flung onto ledges.
From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
