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Glite Dictionary
shinbone

shinbone

3 1.6
A thick inner bone in the lower leg between the knee and ankle
  • noun
  • /ˈʃɪnˌboʊn/
translation icon : tibia
  • During the injury, he fractured his shinbone and needed surgery to repair it.
  • shinbone tibia
  • the right shinbone

Examples

  • In many animals, the shinbone is thicker than the fibula to provide strength and stability.

  • My growing shinbones—the tibias, to put words in my mother's mouth—hurt at night while I lie there helpless.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • And the shinbone connected to the anklebone.

    The Rainbow Thief (1994)

  • And the kneebone connected to the shinbone.

    The Rainbow Thief (1994)

  • The bullet shattered my shinbone.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The scar was a half inch to the right of his shinbone, a little white star that still ached to the touch.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Humped my leg so much I got a callus on my shinbone.

    Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

  • The pain had moved through both ankles, up into the shinbones, and for a time he listened to himself converse with his feet.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The shinbone, also known as the tibia, supports the weight of the body during walking.

Synonyms

tibia
vsshinbone
  • Specialized
17 5.4

The larger bone in the lower leg between knee and ankle

is the everyday name rather than the specialist term
shin bone
vsshinbone
1 2.5

The large inner bone in the lower leg from knee to ankle

is written as one word meaning the same bone

Surface Forms

shinbone singular
shinbones plural

Morphology

shinbone = shin + bone (transparent) = shin + bone

The compound plainly denotes the bone of the shin; the meaning follows directly from its parts.

Etymology

The word shinbone comes from an old English word shin, meaning 'the front of the lower leg', and bone, so it names the big bone in that part of your leg, the tibia.