teres minor
- noun
- /ˈtɛrɪs ˈmaɪnər/
- Specialized
:
teres menor
- During the physical exam, the doctor checked the function of the teres minor muscle.
- teres minor and infraspinatus
Examples
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Injury to the teres minor can limit a person's ability to rotate their arm outward.
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The teres minor muscle helps in arm movement.
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The teres minor plays an important role in stabilizing the shoulder joint during movement.
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He injured his teres minor while lifting weights.
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The teres minor is one of the four muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint.
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During shoulder surgery, the surgeon carefully examined the teres minor for any signs of injury.
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To improve your shoulder mobility, exercises targeting the teres minor can be very beneficial.
Synonyms
A small round shoulder muscle that pulls the arm toward the body and turns it outward
A small upper-arm muscle that turns the arm outward and steadies the shoulder
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward noun phrase where the anatomical noun 'teres' (a shoulder muscle) is modified by the adjective 'minor' (smaller), so the meaning 'the smaller teres muscle' is directly derivable from the constituents. Anatomical naming conventions commonly use this adjective+noun pattern across languages, so a learner who knows both constituent meanings would readily infer the MWE's sense.
Etymology
Teres minor comes from Latin: teres means 'rounded' and minor means 'smaller'. So the name gives a simple picture: it is the smaller, rounded shoulder muscle that helps rotate the arm outward and keep the shoulder steady.
