Word.ws English Dictionary

rhachis

rhachis is the alternative spelling of rachis.

Meaning of rachis

Noun

rachis (plural rachises or rachides)

  1. (obsolete) The spinal column, or the vertebrae of the spine.
  2. An anatomical shaft or axis in a marine invertebrate.
    • In some squid species, the pen rachis flares out into wings on either side, and the tip of the rachis grows into a thick cone.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 115
  3. The central shaft of a feather.
  4. The axis of either a compound leaf, inflorescence, or fern frond.

Forms of rhachis

pluralrhachises
pluralrhachides

Questions about rhachis

What is rhachis the alternative spelling of?
Rhachis is the alternative spelling of rachis.

Words near rhachis in the dictionary

  1. rhachidian
  2. rhachilla
  3. rhachillae
  4. rhachillas
  5. rhachiotomy
  6. rhachis
  7. rhachischisis
  8. rhachises
  9. rhachitis
  10. rhachitome
  11. rhachitomes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rhachis (page history and authors); rachis (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:

Cite this entry: “rhachis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rhachis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.