Plural of tarsus

irregular plural

The plural of tarsus is tarsi.

Forms of tarsus

On the ledge, the guillemots shuffle awkwardly about on their tarsi, the long bone connecting the ‘ankle’ to the feet.2020, Tim Ecott, The Land of Maybe, Short Books, published 2021, page 99
On most birds, the tarsus is scaly and unfeathered, but a few arctic species--snowy owls, ptarmigans, and rough-legged hawks among them--have feathered tarsi.1988 February 5, Jerry Sullivan, “Field & Street”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry unfeathered
Legs flavescent, femora with coarse, coalescing round, castaneous spots, some forming anteapical annulus, tibiae with vague, irregularly scattered castaneous dashes; tarsi light castaneous.1965 September, Herbert Ruckes, “Several New Genera and Species of Discocephaline Pentatomids (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)”, in Journal of…. From the entry anteapical
Olfactory sensilla are mainly localized on the antennae, and gustatory sensilla occur primarily on the labium and maxillar and mandibular palpi, rarely on the tarsi (in some insects).2023 January 12, Artur Taszakowski, Adrian Masłowski, Kent M. Daane, Jolanta Brożek, “Closer view of antennal sensory organs of two…. From the entry mechanosensillum

noun A group of small bones in this part of the foot. The seven bones of the human tarsus form the ankle and upper part of the foot.
noun The shank or tarsometatarsus of the leg of a bird or reptile.
noun The true foot or the fifth joint of the leg of an insect or other arthropod, typically consisting of several small segments and ending in a claw.

Adapted from Wiktionary: tarsus (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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