vertebra

UK/ˈvɜː.tɪb.ɹə//ˈvɝ.təb.ɹə/

vertebra noun: any of the bony or cartilaginous segments which make up the backbone, consisting in some lower vertebrates of several distinct elements which never become united, and in higher vertebrates having a short more or less cylindrical body whose ends articulate by pads of elastic or cartilaginous tissue with those of adjacent vertebrae and a bony arch that encloses the spinal cord.

Image: Henry Vandyke Carter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

vertebra (plural vertebrae or (obsolete) vertebræ or vertebras)

Any of the bony or cartilaginous segments which make up the backbone, consisting in some lower vertebrates of several distinct elements which never become united, and in higher vertebrates having a short more or less cylindrical body whose ends articulate by pads of elastic or cartilaginous tissue with those of adjacent vertebrae and a bony arch that encloses the spinal cord.
- Already I seemed to hear the water rippling against the desiccated bones and rattling them together, rolling my skull against Mahomed's, and his against mine, till at last Mahomed's stood straight up upon its vertebræ, and glared at me through its empty eyeholes, and cursed me with its grinning...1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
Synonyms:

spondyle

vertebra meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

vertebra in Hindi

vertebra: मोहरा mohrā

vertebra in Tamil

any of the small bones making up the backbone: முள்ளெலும்பு muḷḷelumpu

vertebra in Urdu

vertebra: مہرہ muhra, فقرہ fiqra

vertebra in Telugu

vertebra: వెన్నుపూస vennupūsa

More languagesFewer languages

vertebra in Malayalam: കശേരു kaśēru
vertebra in Kannada: ಬೆನ್ನೆಲುಬು, ಬೆನ್ಮೂಳೆ, ಬೆನ್ನೆಲು, ಕಶೇರುಖಂಡ
vertebra in Tagalog: gulugod
vertebra in Arabic: فَقَرَة faqara
vertebra in Persian: مهره mohre
vertebra in Myanmar: ကျောရိုးဆစ် kyau:rui:hcac, ကျောရိုးဆစ်များ kyau:rui:hcacmya:

Examples of vertebra in a sentence

Four measurement items were thoracic vertebrae (Th1–Th12), lower thoracic vertebrae (Th9–Th12), lumbar vertebrae (Th12–S1), and sacral slope.
They share few characters: 25 vertebrae; compact, triangular gut; inconspicuous gas bladder; and some head spination.
There are 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal (Coc1 to Coc4) vertebrae.

All 21 example sentences with vertebra

Synonyms of vertebra

spondyle

Forms of vertebra

plural	vertebrae
plural	vertebras
plural (obsolete)	vertebræ

Plural of vertebra: vertebrae or vertebras

Origin of vertebra

Borrowing from Latin vertebra (“a joint”), from vertō (“to turn”) + -bra (instrumental nominal suffix). Having multiple vertebrae (plural of vertebra) in one's backbone instead of having a single bone or solid spine, allows for the movement of the body with bends and turns. Hence meaning 1.

Words formed from vertebra

Phrases with vertebra

anticlinal vertebra

Words that rhyme with vertebra

Questions about vertebra

What does vertebra mean?: Vertebra means any of the bony or cartilaginous segments which make up the backbone, consisting in some lower vertebrates of several distinct elements which never become united, and in higher vertebrates having a short more or less cylindrical body whose ends articulate by pads of elastic or cartilaginous tissue with those of adjacent vertebrae and a bony arch that encloses the spinal cord.
What is vertebra in Hindi?: Vertebra in Hindi is मोहरा (mohrā). See Vertebra meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is vertebra?: Vertebra is a noun.
How do you pronounce vertebra?: Vertebra is pronounced /ˈvɜː.tɪb.ɹə/ (UK).
What is the plural of vertebra?: The plural of vertebra is vertebrae.

Words near vertebra in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: vertebra (page history and authors); मोहरा (Hindi) (page history and authors); فقرہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); వెన్నుపూస (Telugu) (page history and authors); vertebra (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-vertebra.ogg.

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