COSTA

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected form: costae

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of the 12 pairs of curved arches of bone extending from the spine to or toward the sternum in humans (and similar bones in most vertebrates)

Synonyms:

costa; rib

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("costa" is a kind of...):

bone; os (rigid connective tissue that makes up the skeleton of vertebrates)

Meronyms (parts of "costa"):

costal cartilage (the cartilages that connect the sternum and the ends of the ribs; its elasticity allows the chest to move in respiration)

Domain category:

craniate; vertebrate (animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "costa"):

true rib (one of the first seven ribs in a human being which attach to the sternum)

Holonyms ("costa" is a part of...):

craniate; vertebrate (animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium)

Derivation:

costal (of or relating to or near a rib)

Sense 2