spinal curvature
- noun
- /ˈspaɪnəl ˈkɜrvətʃər/
- Specialized
:
curvatura espinal
- He was a small man, further diminished by a spinal curvature arrested at an eleven-degree tilt to the right.
Examples
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What's extraordinary is, I've determined the exact height, weight and spinal curvature of this creature, and my computer can't find a single match for it anywhere in Earth's animal kingdom.
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Proponents of scoliosis screening maintain that early detection is necessary to catch and treat spinal curvatures before they become severe enough to cause chronic pain and negatively affect cardiopulmonary functioning.
Academic text (2012) -
I highlight another, more historical reason: the persistence of the belief that spinal curvature is a sign of a progressive disease or disability.
Academic text (2012) -
The straight back syndrome, consisting of loss of normal upper thoracic spinal curvature, is not an uncommon entity.
Academic text (2007) -
Most alarming about Shands's results was not the incidence but rather the medical profession's inability to explain why spinal curvature occurred in an otherwise healthy population of adolescents.
Academic text (2012) -
In both cases, school nurses and physical educators often performed the examination on site, usually in a school gymnasium, where they would line up 30 partially clothed children at a time, inspecting shoulder height, leg length, spinal curvature, and foot shape.
Academic text (2012) -
Despite the successful management of diseases that caused bony deformities earlier in the century, postwar orthopedic specialists continued to see patients with spinal curvatures in the clinic and wondered why such malformations still existed.
Academic text (2012) -
The straight back syndrome, consisting of loss of normal upper thoracic spinal curvature associated with cardiac murmurs, which was previously considered a form of 'pseudo heart disease,' has been attributed to squashing of the heart in the reduced anteroposterior diameter of the chest.
Academic text (2007) -
Prolonged sitting can lead to spinal curvature, which may result in chronic back pain.
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Many athletes perform exercises to improve their posture and reduce the risk of spinal curvature.
Synonyms
5
5.9
A bending of a body part, often the spine, that is not normal
How Curved
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally means 'a curvature of the spine' and is directly compositional from 'spinal' (relating to the vertebral column) + 'curvature' (a bend). Although somewhat medical in register, the meaning follows a straightforward noun–noun composition that a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer; similar constructions occur across languages.
Etymology
Spinal curvature comes from the clear picture the words make: spinal means 'spine' and curvature means 'a curve or bend'. Imagine the backbone making a C or S shape instead of staying straight, and that's why the phrase means 'an abnormal bending of the spine'.