trapezium

American  

[truh-pee-zee-uhm] / trəˈpi zi əm /

noun

plural

trapeziums, trapezia

1. Geometry.

   1. (in Euclidean geometry) any rectilinear quadrilateral plane figure not a parallelogram.

   2. a quadrilateral plane figure of which no two sides are parallel.

   3. British. trapezoid.

2. Anatomy. a bone in the wrist that articulates with the metacarpal bone of the thumb.

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trapezium British  

/ trəˈpiːzɪəm /

noun

1. Usual US and Canadian name: trapezoid.  a quadrilateral having two parallel sides of unequal length

2. a quadrilateral having neither pair of sides parallel

3. a small bone of the wrist near the base of the thumb

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trapezium Scientific  

/ trə-pē′zē-əm /

plural

trapeziums

1. A four-sided plane figure having no parallel sides.

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Other Word Forms

• trapezial
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of trapezium

1545–55; < New Latin < Greek trapézion kind of quadrilateral, literally, small table, equivalent to trápez ( a ) table (shortening of *tetrapeza object having four feet, equivalent to tetra- four + péza foot, akin to poús, podós; see tetra-, foot) + -ion diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

This movement is produced at the first carpometacarpal joint, which is a saddle joint formed between the trapezium carpal bone and the first metacarpal bone.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

The flexor retinaculum is attached laterally to the trapezium and scaphoid bones, and medially to the hamate and pisiform bones.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

You can see four distinctly through my telescope, forming a trapezium or four-sided figure, and more powerful instruments show two smaller ones.

From Through Magic Glasses and Other Lectures A Sequel to The Fairyland of Science by Buckley, Arabella B.

Outside the trapezium, which we have described, the barricades extended, as we have said, as far as Faubourg Saint-Martin, and to the neighbourhood of the canal.

From Napoleon the Little by Hugo, Victor

There was a curious thirteenth-century chest, trapezium in form, and said to be the only one of that shape in the West of England.

From From John O'Groats to Land's End by Naylor, Robert