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Glite Dictionary
tarsal bone

tarsal bone

5.6
A small bone in the ankle that helps the foot move
  • noun
  • /ˈtɑrsl boʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hueso tarsiano
  • The tarsal bones in the ankle help support the body's weight while standing and walking.

Examples

  • After breaking her ankle, the doctor explained that her tarsal bones were damaged.

  • Athletes often experience pain in their tarsal bones due to repetitive stress during training.

  • The most notable abnormalities include a hypoplasia of the tarsal bones, with reduced size and shortening of the talus.

    Academic text (2005)

Synonyms

tarsal
vstarsal bone
  • Specialized
1 8.1

One of the bones in the ankle and back part of the foot

is the same meaning but names each individual ankle bone explicitly
short bone
vstarsal bone
  • Specialized
6.0

A bone about as long as it is wide and thick, found in the wrist and ankle

refers specifically to the small bones that form the ankle region

Surface Forms

tarsal bone singular
tarsal bones plural

Morphology

tarsal + bone

If a learner knows 'tarsal' (pertaining to the tarsus/ankle) and 'bone' (a skeletal element), the meaning 'a bone of the tarsus/ankle region' is directly and compositionally derivable. This adjective+noun composition is a regular, cross-linguistic pattern, so the phrase is transparent to someone who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Tarsal bone comes from an old word 'tarsus' meaning the 'sole' or flat part of the foot, and tarsal points to that area while bone means a hard piece of the body. These small bones make the ankle and connect the foot to the leg, so the name tells you where they are and what they do.