nutrient artery
- noun
- /ˈnjuːtriənt ˈɑːrteri/
- Specialized
- The nutrient artery supplies blood to the bone marrow.
Examples
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The nutrient artery enters the bone through a small opening called the nutrient foramen.
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During surgery, care was taken not to injure the nutrient artery supplying the femur.
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Damage to the nutrient artery can impair bone healing after a fracture.
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Each long bone has a nutrient artery for nourishment.
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Damage to the nutrient artery can impair bone healing after a fracture.
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The nutrient artery enters the bone through a small opening called the nutrient foramen.
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Each long bone has a nutrient artery that provides essential blood supply for nourishment.
Synonyms
A blood vessel that gives blood to the inside of a long bone
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is fully compositional: 'nutrient' (provides nourishment) modifies 'artery' (a blood vessel), so a learner who knows both words can infer it is an artery that supplies nourishment/blood to tissue (here, bone). Although it's a technical medical term, the meaning follows regular noun–noun composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
The term nutrient artery comes from the image of a blood vessel that 'feeds' a bone. The part nutrient means something that gives food and artery means a main blood vessel, so the phrase refers to the vessel that brings blood and food into the inside of a long bone.