uterus
Americannoun
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uteri,
plural
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uteruses
plural
noun
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Nontechnical name: womb. anatomy a hollow muscular organ lying within the pelvic cavity of female mammals. It houses the developing fetus and by contractions aids in its expulsion at parturition
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the corresponding organ in other animals
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uteri
plural
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The hollow, muscular organ of female mammals in which the embryo develops. In most mammals the uterus is divided into two saclike parts, whereas in primates it is a single structure. It lies between the bladder and rectum and is attached to the vagina and the fallopian tubes. During the menstrual cycle (estrus), the lining of the uterus (endometrium) undergoes changes that permit the implantation of a fertilized egg.
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Also called womb
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See more at menstrual cycle
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of uterus
1605–15; < Latin: the womb, matrix; akin to Greek hystéra womb, Sanskrit udara belly
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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.
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Here’s what I know: There’s a fetus inside a woman’s uterus, and the fetus can communicate in an omniscient, echoing Minnie Mouse voice with its mother.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2026
The disease is present when tissue resembling the uterine lining grows outside the uterus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
When her husband rushed from work to her side, she relayed what she said the medical team had told her: Inducing delivery or emptying her uterus would be “a crime,” he later told ProPublica.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
Adenomyosis is a condition where the lining of the uterus begins to grow into the muscle of the womb.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
Fallopio described these links between the uterus and the ovaries as flaring out at the end like a ‘brass trumpet’—a tuba.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Her fourth pregnancy saw her carry two babies, one in each of the uteri, a condition known as dicavitary pregnancy.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 23, 2023
And the odds of becoming pregnant in both uteri - a dicavitary pregnancy - were even slimmer, at "one in a million", according to the UAB.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2023
A painting of pink, green and yellow uteri strung on a clothesline hangs on a pale-yellow wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2022
Her tonic promised to cure everything from menstrual cramps to infertility to prolapsus uteri.
From Salon ● Mar. 9, 2014
While I was reading the chapter on Imposition and Demonstration,9 I was healed of endometritis and prolapsus uteri of over twenty years' standing, pronounced incurable by eminent physicians.
From Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 by Mary Baker Eddy
Many people who get their uteruses out are thrilled about it, in part because it can finally give them, after years of misdiagnosis and pushback, a sense of control.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2025
She claimed to have a rare condition of having two uteruses and provided a fake NHS-branded letter apparently confirming the miscarriage, the court heard.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2025
These were implanted in the uteruses of normal cows in Brazil, and one transgenic calf was born.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2024
The book contains striking color illustrations of fetuses and uteruses at all stages of development and pregnancy — the consequences of what Granville called “morbid menstruation.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2022
There were found two uteruses, the posterior one being a normal organ with its adnexa; connected with this uterus was another one, anterior to it.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Walter L. (Walter Lytle) Pyle
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.
