symphysis

Borrowed from New Latin symphysis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪm.fɪs.ɪs/

symphysis (plural symphyses)

1. (anatomy) The process of two originally separate bones growing together as the subject matures, as with the pubic bones or lower jawbones in humans.
2. (anatomy) A place where two bones are closely joined in the median plane of the body, either forming an immovable joint (as between the pubic bones in the center of the pelvis) or completely fused (as at the midline of the lower jaw).
   1. (medicine) A line, discernable on an X-ray, showing such fusion.
   2. (anatomy) The cartilaginous material that adjoins and facilitates the junction of such bones, without a synovial membrane.

• “symphysis”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “symphysis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σύμφῠσῐς (súmphusis, “growing together, natural junction”), from σῠμφύω (sumphúō, “to make to grow together, to unite”) +‎ -σῐς (-sis, nominal suffix).

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsim.fi.sis/, [ˈsimfis̬is]

symphysis f (genitive symphysis or symphyseōs or symphysios); third declension

1. (anatomy) A symphysis.

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

→ English: symphysis