noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A degenerative process of bone, occurring at sites of articular cartilage erosion and commonly found in patients with osteoarthritis. Subchondral bone responds to increased friction by generating reactive, ivory-like dense bone at the site of erosion. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   a change that occurs in degenerative joint disease in which bone is converted into a dense smooth substance resembling ivory wordnet

Etymology

From Latin ebur (“ivory”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.