skeletal

UK/ˈskɛl.ɪ.təl/US/ˈskɛl.ə.təl/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,808 of 15,258leans written

Skeletal means reduced to skin and bone, or barely sketched out. A skeletal figure, a skeletal outline, skeletal remains.

The medical sense is grave and the other is neutral: a skeletal plan is one with the bare structure and no detail, and saying so is a description rather than a complaint. Skeletal remains is the standard term in a police or archaeological report.

Definitions of skeletal

1adjectiveskeletalReduced to skin and bone, or barely sketched out.B2+
“The prisoners were skeletal after months without proper food.”

skeletal is a quality.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kelh₁- — to parch, wither
Ancient Greek
σκελετός
New Latin
sceleton
English
skeleton
English, today
skeletal

Built from

σκελετός · Ancient Greek — dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy
σκέλλω · Ancient Greek — dry, dry up, make dry, parch

From skeleton + -al. skeleton comes from New Latin sceleton, from Ancient Greek σκελετός, the neuter of σκελετός (“dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy”), from σκέλλω (“dry, dry up, make dry, parch”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)kelh₁- (“to parch, wither”); compare Ancient Greek σκληρός (“hard”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

skeletal in the wild

The muscular system is an organ system consisting of skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle.
Muscular system
In general, female skeletal elements tend to be smaller and less robust than corresponding male elements within a given population.
Human skeleton
A muscle relaxant is a drug that affects skeletal muscle function and decreases the muscle tone.
Muscle relaxant
The skeletal muscle cells (myocytes) are much longer than in the other types of muscle tissue, and are also known as muscle fibers.
Skeletal muscle
In terms of volume, myocytes make up the great majority of skeletal muscle.
Skeletal muscle

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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.

Related words

the sceleton family

skeleton

skeletal — used about once every 7,127 pages · #10,808 · point at the bar for the others

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