spine
A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.
Other meanings
Courage or assertiveness.
Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.
Synonyms
- spinal column
- vertebral column
- backbone
- back
A kind of
- skeletal structure
Related words
- interspine
- spinophilin
- spine ramp
- three-spined stickleback
- spine board
- spine pig
- spine plot
- spine-chilling
- spine-chiller
- spine-tingling
- lumbar spine
- thoracic spine
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "spīna" (a thorn; a prickle, spine; the backbone).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “spine” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.