occipital
/ɒkˈsɪp.ɪt.əl/US/ɑkˈsɪp.ət.l̩/
occipital adjective: of, pertaining to, or located within or near the occiput (back of the head) or the occipital bone. Also the ellipsis of occipital bone.
Adjective
occipital (not comparable)
- Of, pertaining to, or located within or near the occiput (back of the head) or the occipital bone.
Noun
occipital (plural occipitals)
- An occipital scale in reptiles.
Also used as
occipital is also the ellipsis of occipital bone.
Forms of occipital
| plural | occipitals |
|---|
Origin of occipital
Borrowing from Middle French occipital, from Medieval Latin occipitālis, from occiput (“the back of the head, occiput”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent of occiput + -al. Doublet of occipitalis.
Words formed from occipital
- atlanto-occipital
- atlantooccipital
- atlantoccipital
- basioccipital
- basiooccipital
- cervicooccipital
- craniooccipital
- epioccipital
- exooccipital
- exoccipital
- frontooccipital
- frontaloccipital
- hyperoccipital
- infraoccipital
- interoccipital
- laterooccipital
- lateraloccipital
- medioccipital
- midoccipital
- nonoccipital
- occipital artery
- occipital bone
- occipital bun
- occipital horn syndrome
- occipital lobe
- occipitally
- occipital nerve
- occipital point
- occipito-
- occipit-
- otooccipital
- otoccipital
- oticooccipital
- paraoccipital
- paroccipital
- parieto-occipital
- parietooccipital
- ponto-geniculo-occipital
- postoccipital
- preoccipital
- sphenooccipital
- suboccipital
- superoccipital
- supraoccipital
- temporo-occipital
- temporooccipital
- temporoccipital
- temporoparietooccipital
- trachelo-occipital
Phrases with occipital
Words that rhyme with occipital
Questions about occipital
- What does occipital mean?
- Occipital means of, pertaining to, or located within or near the occiput (back of the head) or the occipital bone.
- What part of speech is occipital?
- Occipital can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce occipital?
- Occipital is pronounced /ɒkˈsɪp.ɪt.əl/ (UK).
Words near occipital in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: occipital (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-occipital.wav.
Cite this entry: “occipital.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/occipital. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.