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marrow

UK/ˈmæɹəʊ/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,865 of 15,258neutral

Marrow is the soft fatty tissue inside a bone. Bone marrow, marrow transplant, suck the marrow.

It makes all the blood cells — red, white and platelets — which is why a marrow transplant can cure some cancers and why damage to it is so dangerous. Chilled to the marrow means cold to the core. In Britain a marrow is also a large vegetable.

Rasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of marrow

  1. 1nounmarrowThe soft fatty tissue inside a bone.B2

    “The dog chewed the bone to get at the marrow inside.”

marrow is a tissue.

Where it comes from

Old English mearg names the tissue, from a Germanic root going back to Proto-Indo-European.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *mosgʰos

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *mazgą

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *maʀg

  4. Old English

    mearg

  5. Middle English

    mary

  6. English, today

    marrow

From Middle English mary, marow, marwe, marowȝ, from Old English mearg, from Proto-West Germanic maʀg, from Proto-Germanic mazgą, mazgaz, from Proto-Indo-European mosgʰos. Compare West Frisian moarch, Dutch merg, German Mark, Swedish märg, Icelandic mergur, and also Russian мозг (“brain”), Polish mózg (“brain”), ask amōźã, bsh muč, muj, wbk muj, Persian مغز (“brain”), Sanskrit मज्जन्. a doublet of maghaz.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

marrow in the wild

  • Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells.

    Leukemia

  • Diagnosis is typically made by blood tests or bone marrow biopsy.

    Leukemia

  • Some types of MDS cause an increase in the production of immature blood cells (called blasts), in the bone marrow or blood.

    Myelodysplastic syndrome

  • In adult humans, bone marrow is primarily located in the ribs, vertebrae, sternum, and bones of the pelvis.

    Bone marrow

  • Bone marrow transplants can be conducted to treat severe diseases of the bone marrow, including certain forms of cancer such as leukemia.

    Bone marrow

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.