Wormian bone

9.9

A small extra bone that sometimes forms in the seams between bones of the skull

noun
/ˈwɜrmiən boʊn/

Specialized

: hueso wormiano

Radiologists sometimes identify Wormian bones on skull X-rays.

Examples

The presence of Wormian bones can be an indicator of certain medical conditions.
During the autopsy, several Wormian bones were noted along the lambdoid suture.
The Wormian bone is often overlooked in anatomy studies.
Many skulls exhibit Wormian bones along the sutures.
During the autopsy, several Wormian bones were noted along the lambdoid suture.
Radiologists sometimes identify Wormian bones on skull X-rays.
Many skulls exhibit Wormian bones along the sutures.

Synonyms

sutural bone

vsWormian bone

Specialized

9.9

A small, irregular bone between the main bones of the skull

is the same but used especially for occurrences in the human cranium

Surface Forms

Wormian bone singular

Wormian bones plural

Morphology

Wormian + bone

This is a technical, eponymous anatomical term: the modifier 'Wormian' is not a transparent lexical adjective but a name-derived label, so knowing 'bone' does not allow a learner to infer 'small irregular bones within skull sutures'. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words (or thinks of 'worm') would likely misinterpret or fail to derive the specialized meaning, so the expression is unpredictable from its parts.

Etymology

Wormian bone comes from the name of a doctor from the 1600s, Olaus Worm, who first wrote about these tiny extra bones in the skull. So Wormian bones means 'small extra bones' that sometimes appear in the lines where skull bones join.