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spine. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
spine, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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spine you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From late Middle English spyne, from Old French espine (French épine) or its source, Latin spīna (“a thorn; a prickle, spine; the backbone”). Doublet of spina.
Pronunciation
Noun
spine (plural spines)
- (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.
- Synonyms: backbone, spinal column, vertebral column
- Hyponyms: C-spine, cervical spine, L-spine, railway spine, T-spine
1851, Herman Melville, chapter 80, in Moby-Dick:If you attentively regard almost any quadruped's spine, you will be struck with the resemblance of its vertebrae to a strung necklace of dwarfed skulls.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 266:The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
- (figurative) Courage or assertiveness.
2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 409:Trademark Owners will nevertheless try to dictate how their marks are to be represented, but dictionary publishers with spine can resist such pressure.
- Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.
- Hyponyms: anterior superior iliac spine, dendritic spine, neural spine
1838, Samuel Hare, chapter 4, in Practical Observations on the Causes and Treatment of Curvatures of the Spine: With Hygienic Directions for the Physical Culture of Youth, as a Means of Preventing the Disease; an Etching and Description of an Apparatus for the Correction of the Deformity, and Engravings Illustrative of the Cases, London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. , →OCLC, Lateral Curvature, page 76:[Describing scoliosis.] The integuments over the abdomen are folded or wrinkled, the left breast is seldom fully developed, the ribs lose their natural shape, those of the left side becoming straighter, while, on the right side, they are so much curved, as to admit of their being easily grasped by the hand; they are closer together on the left side, and frequently rest upon the spine of the ilium, thus giving the right side a fuller and more rounded appearance than is natural.
1994, Howard S. An with J. Michael Simpson, “Anatomy of the Cervical Spine”, in Surgery of the Cervical Spine, London: Martin Dunitz, →ISBN, Muscles and Fascia, page 14:The posterior muscles of the neck are divided into superficial, intermediate, and deep groups. The most superficial muscle is the trapezius, which originates from the external occipital protuberance and the medial nuchal line of C7 to T12 spinous processes and inserts onto the spine of the scapula, acromion, and the lateral aspect of the clavicle.
2007, Peter Hyatt, “Ian Moore Architects”, in Masters of Light: Designing the Luminous House, Mulgrave, Vic.: The Images Publishing Group, →ISBN, Air Apartments, page 242:The eastern tower and the smaller western satellite are linked by the lift core, which passes through the centre of the monorail turning circle and provides the structural spine of the building; the two towers are cantilevered from this spine.
2007, Sergei Matveev, “2 Complexity Theory of 3-Manifolds”, in Algorithmic Topology and Classification of 3-Manifolds, 2nd edition, Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, 2.3.2 Simplification Moves, page 75:The polyhedron P∪D is a special spine of the twice punctured M, that is, of M with two balls B1, B2 cut out of it. To get a spine of M, we make a hole in c′ or c″ depending on which of them is a common face of these balls.
- 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.
- Synonym: back
1994–2014, “Rare Book Basics: Book Terms Illustrated”, in Powell's City of Books, archived from the original on 5 July 2014:The spine is the book's backbone. Because the spine is generally all you can see when a book is on the shelf, the spine displays the title and author of the book and is often ornately decorated.
- (zootomy, botany) A pointed, fairly rigid protuberance or needlelike structure on an animal, shell, or plant.
- Synonyms: needle, prickle, (on animals, flexible) quill, spicule, (rigid) spike, (on plants) thorn, (obsolete) virgula
- (botany) The heartwood of trees.
- (neuroscience) Ellipsis of dendritic spine..
2008, Dale Purves, George J. Augustine, David Fitzpatrick, William C. Hall, Anthony-Samuel LaMantia, James O. McNamara, Leonard E. White, Neuroscience, 4th edition, Sinauer Associates:Spines are distinguished by the presence of globular tips called spine heads; when spines are present, the synapses innervating dendrites are made from these heads.
- A linear payscale operated by some large organizations that allows flexibility for local and specific conditions.
- Synonym: pay spine
- (geology) A tall mass of viscous lava extruded from a volcano.
- The stiffness of an arrow.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
backbone
- Afrikaans: ruggraat
- Albanian: (please verify) shpinë (sq) f (one's back), (please verify) shpina f (the back of a person or thing)
- Apache:
- Western Apache: batsą́tsʼin
- Arabic: عَمُود فَقْرِيّ (ar) m (ʕamūd faqriyy)
- Egyptian Arabic: عمود فقري m (ʕamūd faqarī)
- Armenian: ողնաշար (hy) (oġnašar)
- Aromanian: schinari f, cãtinã f
- Assamese: ৰাজহাড় (razohar)
- Asturian: espinazu (ast) m, espina (ast) f
- Azerbaijani: onurğa (az)
- Bashkir: умыртҡа (umırtqa)
- Belarusian: хрыбе́тнік m (xrybjétnik), ́хрыбе́тніца f (́xrybjétnica), пазвано́чнік m (pazvanóčnik), хрыбе́т f (xrybjét)
- Bengali: মেরুদণ্ড (bn) (merudonḍo)
- Berber:
- Tashelhit: iẓḍi (n ukrum) m
- Bulgarian: гръбна́чен стълб m (grǎbnáčen stǎlb), гръбна́к m (grǎbnák)
- Burmese: ကျောရိုး (my) (kyau:rui:)
- Catalan: espinada (ca) f, raquis (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 脊椎 (zek3 zeoi1), 脊骨 (zek3 gwat1), (please verify) 腰骨 (jiu1 gwat1)
- Mandarin: 骨幹/骨干 (zh) (gǔgàn), 脊骨 (zh) (jígǔ), 背骨 (zh) (bèigǔ), 脊椎 (zh) (jǐzhuī)
- Czech: páteř (cs) f, hřbet (cs) m
- Danish: rygsøjle (da) c, rygrad c
- Dutch: ruggengraat (nl)
- Egyptian: (psḏ)
- Esperanto: spino, vertebraro, vertebra kolumno
- Estonian: selgroog (et)
- Finnish: selkäranka (fi)
- French: colonne vertébrale (fr) f, échine (fr) f (of animals), épine dorsale (fr) f
- Galician: espiñazo (gl) m, soá (gl) f, soaxe (gl) f, cerrizo (gl) m, cernizo m
- Georgian: ხერხემალი (xerxemali)
- German: Rückgrat (de) n, Wirbelsäule (de) f
- Greek: σπονδυλική στήλη (el) f (spondylikí stíli), ραχοκοκαλιά (el) f (rachokokaliá)
- Ancient: ῥάχις f (rhákhis)
- Hebrew: עַמּוּד שִׁדְרָה (he) m ('amúd shidrá)
- Hindi: मेरुदण्ड (hi) m (merudaṇḍ), रीढ़ की हड्डी f (rīṛh kī haḍḍī)
- Hungarian: gerinc (hu)
- Icelandic: hryggur (is) m, hryggjarsúla (is) f
- Ingrian: selkäpii
- Italian: colonna vertebrale (it)
- Japanese: 背骨 (ja) (せぼね, sebone), 脊椎 (ja) (せきつい, sekitsui), 脊柱 (ja) (せきちゅう, sekichū)
- Kazakh: омыртқа (kk) (omyrtqa)
- Khmer: ឆ្អឹងខ្នង (chʼəng khnɑɑng)
- Korean: 척추(脊椎) (ko) (cheokchu)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: birrbirre
- Kyrgyz: омуртка (omurtka)
- Lao: ກະດູກສັນຫຼັງ (lo) (ka dūk san lang)
- Latin: spīna f, columna vertebrālis f
- Latvian: mugurkauls m
- Lithuanian: stuburas m
- Macedonian: ’р́бет m (’ŕbet)
- Malay: tulang belakang (ms)
- Malayalam: നട്ടെല്ല് (ml) (naṭṭellŭ)
- Maori: tuātara, iwituaroa, tuakoko, tuaiwi, iwituararo
- Middle English: chyne
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: нуруу (mn) (nuruu)
- Navajo: íígháán
- Nepali: मेरुदण्ड (merudaṇḍa)
- Northern Ohlone: núm̄es
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: ryggrad m or f, ryggsøyle m or f, virvelsøyle m or f
- Nynorsk: ryggrad f, ryggsøyle f, virvelsøyle f
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: хрьбьтъ m (xrĭbĭtŭ)
- Old English: hryċġbān n
- Pashto: شمزۍ (ps) f (šamzᶕy), شنځۍ (šanjǝ́y)
- Persian: ستون مهرهها (fa) (sotun-e mohre-hâ)
- Polish: kręgosłup (pl) m
- Portuguese: espinhaço (pt) m, espinha (pt) f, coluna (pt) f, coluna vertebral (pt)
- Romanian: coloană vertebrală (ro) f
- Russian: позвоно́чник (ru) m (pozvonóčnik), хребе́т (ru) m (xrebét)
- Scottish Gaelic: cnàimh an droma m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: кра́љежница f, кра́љешница f, ки̑чма f, хрптѐњача f, хрптеница f, хр̏бат m
- Roman: králježnica (sh) f, králješnica (sh) f, kȋčma (sh) f, hrptènjača (sh) f, hrptenica f, hȑbat (sh) m
- Sinhalese: කශේරුව (kaśēruwa)
- Slovak: chrbtica (sk) f
- Slovene: hrbtenica (sl) f
- Spanish: columna vertebral (es) f, espinazo (es) m
- Sranan Tongo: bakabonyo
- Swedish: ryggrad (sv) c
- Tagalog: guluguran, bangananan
- Tajik: сутунмӯҳра (sutunmühra)
- Tatar: умырткалык (tt) (umırtkalıq), умыртка (tt) (umırtka)
- Thai: กระดูกสันหลัง (th) (grà-dùuk-sǎn-lǎng)
- Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: omurga (tr)
- Turkmen: oňurga
- Ukrainian: хребе́т m (xrebét)
- Urdu: ریڑھ کی ہڈی f (rīṛh kī haḍḍī)
- Uzbek: umurtqa pogʻonasi
- Vietnamese: xương sống (vi)
- Volapük: bäkabom (vo)
- White Hmong: please add this translation if you can
- Yiddish: רוקנביין m (ruknbeyn)
- Zhuang: ndoksaen
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bound edge of a book
- Bulgarian: гръб (bg) m (grǎb), (please verify) корица f (korica)
- Catalan: llom (ca) m
- Czech: hřbet (cs) m
- Danish: ryg (da) c
- Dutch: rug (nl) m
- Esperanto: (please verify) dorso (eo)
- Finnish: selkä (fi), selkämys
- French: dos (fr) m
- German: Rücken (de) m, Buchrücken (de) m
- Greek: ράχη (el) f (ráchi)
- Icelandic: kjölur (is) m
- Italian: costa (it) f, dorso (it) m
- Japanese: 本の背 (ほんのせ, hon no se), 背表紙 (せびょうし, sebyōshi)
- Latvian: mugura (lv) f
- Macedonian: ’рбет m (’rbet)
- Norwegian: rygg (no) m
- Pashto: (please verify) شا (ps) (šâ), (please verify) څټ (śëṭ)
- Polish: grzbiet (pl) m
- Portuguese: dorso (pt) m, (please verify) lombada (pt) f
- Romanian: (please verify) sfârșit (ro) n
- Russian: корешо́к (ru) m (korešók)
- Slovene: hrbet (sl) m
- Spanish: lomo (es) m
- Swedish: rygg (sv) c, bokrygg (sv) c
- Thai: สัน (th) (sǎn), สันหนังสือ (sǎn-nǎng-sʉ̌ʉ)
- Ukrainian: коріне́ць m (korinécʹ), спи́нка f (spýnka)
- Vietnamese: gáy sách
- Zulu: (please verify) umqolo class 3/4
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rigid, pointed surface protuberance or needle-like structure
- Asturian: espina (ast) f
- Bashkir: энә (enə)
- Bulgarian: бодил (bg) m (bodil), шип (bg) m (šip)
- Catalan: espina (ca) f
- Czech: osten m, trn (cs) m, bodlina (cs) f (of a hedgehog)
- Danish: pig (da) c (of a hedgehog)
- Dutch: stekel (nl) m, doorn (nl) m
- Estonian: oga (et)
- Finnish: piikki (fi), oas (fi)
- French: épine (fr) f, piquant (fr) m
- Galician: espiña (gl) f
- German: Stachel (de) m, Dorn (de) m
- Greek: αγκάθι (el) n (agkáthi)
- Hawaiian: heu (in cacti)
- Hebrew: קוֹץ (he) m (kotz), עוקץ / עֹקֶץ (he) m (óketz)
- Hungarian: tüske (hu)
- Icelandic: hryggur (is) m
- Italian: spina dorsale (it) f
- Latin: spīna f, aculeus m
- Maori: tuātara (on back of fish or reptile), tuaitara, wehiwehi, wewehi
- Ottoman Turkish: دیكن (diken)
- Polish: kolec (pl) m
- Portuguese: espinho (pt)
- Russian: шип (ru) m (šip), игла́ (ru) f (iglá), колю́чка (ru) f (koljúčka)
- Slovene: bodica f
- Spanish: espina (es) f
- Swedish: tagg (sv) c
- Tagalog: tinik
- Turkish: diken (tr)
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References
Further reading
- “spine”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
Friulian
Etymology
From Latin spīna.
Noun
spine f (plural spinis)
- thorn
- spine, prickle
Related terms
Italian
Noun
spine f
- plural of spina
Anagrams
Latin
Noun
spīne
- vocative singular of spīnus
Middle English
Noun
spine
- Alternative form of spyne