Rectus

//ˈɹɛk.təs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of several straight muscles in various parts of the body, as of the abdomen, thigh, eye etc.; Ellipsis of rectus abdominis. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
  2. 2
    any of various straight muscles wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of several straight muscles in various parts of the body, as of the abdomen, thigh, eye etc.; Any of a number of muscles controlling the movement of the eyeball.

Example

More examples

"The quadriceps is made up of four muscles: the rectus femoris, the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedius and the vastus lateralis."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēctus (“straight, upright”), clipping of mūsculus rēctus (“straight muscle”).

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