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Definition of "carpus" []

  • The group of eight bones forming the joint between the forearm and the hand. Also called wrist. (noun)
  • A joint in quadrupeds corresponding to the wrist. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "carpus" in a sentence
  • "The skeleton of the hand exhibits, in the region which we term the wrist, and which is technically called the 'carpus' -- two rows of closely fitted polygonal bones, four in each row, which are tolerably equal in size."
  • "-- The structures which are usually considered as true flexors of the carpus are a group of three muscles, which have separate heads of origin and different points of tendinous insertion."
  • "It is often very difficult or impossible to get the wire to go through the "carpus;" it will suffice, therefore, if, after coming along the metacarpus, it just misses the carpus and enters the skin again at the junction of the radius and ulna."