round bone
- noun
- The x-ray revealed a fracture in the dog's round bone.
Examples
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The butcher sold a round bone cut ideal for making broth.
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Veterinary students studied the structure of a round bone during anatomy class.
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The dog has a round bone in its mouth.
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Can you give me that round bone?
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The veterinarian showed us the round bone from the dog's leg that was broken.
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The archaeologist discovered a round bone that may have belonged to an ancient animal.
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In anatomy class, we studied the structure of a round bone from a human skeleton.
Synonyms
A hard part inside the body that forms the skeleton
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a bone that is approximately round in shape' is directly and transparently derived from combining the adjective 'round' (having a circular or spherical form) with the noun 'bone'. This simple adjective+noun compositional pattern is literal, cross-linguistically common, and fully predictable for learners who know both constituent words.
Etymology
Round bone comes from a simple picture: a bone that is clearly round, like a small ball. People who cut meat or study animals used the name for these ball-shaped bones, so today it means a bone 'approximately round in shape'.