complete fracture
- noun
- /kəmˈpliːt ˈfræktʃər/
- Specialized
:
fractura completa
- The doctor explained that she had suffered a complete fracture of her arm in the accident.
Examples
-
On the other hand, a complete fracture breaks the continuity of the entire bone thickness at the site of the fracture.
Academic text (2002) -
He has a complete fracture of the cervical spine.
-
After falling from the bike, he was diagnosed with a complete fracture of the femur.
-
A complete fracture occurs when the bone is broken all the way through, separating it into two pieces.
Synonyms
364
4.1
A break in something hard like a bone or rock
66
1.0
A sudden crack in a hard thing such as a bone
Antonyms
How Severe
- Specialized
6
6.0
- Specialized
1
8.1
- Specialized
- Specialized
9
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a fracture that goes through the entire width of the bone' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'complete' (entire/whole) with 'fracture' (a break), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a through-and-through break. This is a straightforward adjective+noun composition with clear cross-linguistic equivalents and is not idiomatic, making it accessible to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Complete fracture gives a clear picture: imagine a bone like a stick snapped into two pieces. The word complete means whole and fracture means 'break', so the phrase means a break that goes through the whole bone, separating it into pieces.