spine
noun
Simple meaning
A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspaɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
anatomyzootomy
A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.
anatomyzootomy
The series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
The part of a book's cover that encloses the inner side of the book's pages and that faces outward when the book is shelved
“The title and author were printed on the spine of the book.”
The narrow, bound edge of a book that encloses the inner edges of the pages, facing outwards when the book is on a shelf and typically bearing the title and the author's and publisher's name.
zootomybotanymycology
A sharp rigid animal process or appendage; as a porcupine quill or a ridge on a bone or a ray of a fish fin
Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (anatomy, zootomy) A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.
Used this way, spine is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- vertebral column , a specialist term, precise but narrower
- spinal column , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use spine
- “The title and author were printed on the spine of the book.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Anesthesia of the lower half of the body.
Having spines.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Confined to rivers.
Of rivers and coastal regions.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An anesthetic that is injected into the spine.
An anesthetic that is injected into the spine.
Correction of an unstable part of the spine by joining two or more vertebrae.
Low cushion-forming plant with rose to crimson-magenta flowers and leaf midribs that persist as spines when the leaves die.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.