Epistropheus

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The second cervical vertebra of the spine which forms the pivot upon which the first cervical vertebra (the atlas), which carries the head, rotates.

    "The union of the atlas and epistropheus is described in this section because (1) there is often a direct communication between the synovial cavity of the transverse epistropic and the occipito-atlantal joints; (2) the rotatory movements of the head take place around the dens (odontoid process); and (3) important ligaments from the dens pass over the atlas to the occiput."

Synonyms

All synonyms
axisvertebra dentata

Example

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"The union of the atlas and epistropheus is described in this section because (1) there is often a direct communication between the synovial cavity of the transverse epistropic and the occipito-atlantal joints; (2) the rotatory movements of the head take place around the dens (odontoid process); and (3) important ligaments from the dens pass over the atlas to the occiput."

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