cervical vertebra
5
6.5
- noun
- /ˈsɜrvɪkəl ˈvɜrtɪbrə/
- Specialized
:
vértebra cervical
- As a final example, consider the case where a girl who fell from the parallel bars during high school practice crushed her cervical vertebrae.
Examples
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The apparent cause of death is the fracturing of the second and third cervical vertebrae.
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Were it not for modern medical technology that enabled splendid surgeons to replace my sixth cervical vertebra with a bone graft from my pelvis and a titanium plate last April, I could not possibly be standing here today.
Academic text (2001) -
And sometimes on like super skinny people, you can see your cervical vertebrae through the base of your neck.
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His head and first cervical vertebra are missing, indicating possible decapitation.
Academic text (2011) -
Posterior inspection indicates massive bleeding in the upper cervical vertebrae.
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The cause of death was a severe dislocation and partial fracture of the third and fourth cervical vertebrae.
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Modern swans have up to 25 cervical vertebrae, and as noted above, the marine reptile Albertonectes had 76 cervical vertebrae.
Blog text (7) -
The head front-back tilt changed the curve of the cervical vertebrae: front tilt decreased curvature, and back tilt increased curvature.
Academic text (2011) -
You can see the damage to the second cervical vertebra.
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Now, there is a fractured cervical vertebra at one and two.
Synonyms
3
3.7
A small bone in the neck that helps protect the spine
How Big
- Specialized
71
4.4
- Specialized
4
8.4
- Specialized
1
6.1
- Specialized
2
6.1
- Specialized
5
6.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a bone in the neck region' is directly derivable from combining 'cervical' (relating to the neck) with 'vertebra' (a spinal bone). This is a regular anatomical compound with clear cross-linguistic equivalents, so learners who know both constituent words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The term cervical vertebra comes from Latin words: cervical from 'cervix' meaning 'neck' and vertebra meaning 'a bone of the spine'. So it literally names 'a bone in the neck', which is why it means 'one of the seven bones that form the neck region of the spine'.