Skeletal

//ˈskɛl.ɪ.təl// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Shorthand for skeletal diagram (a black-and-white drawing of a [usually extinct] animal’s skeleton to be used as a reference for paleoart) informal
Adjective
  1. 1
    of, or relating to the skeleton
  2. 2
    haggard, cadaverous, emaciated or gaunt
  3. 3
    barebones, lacking elaboration

    "On the whole, Sidney Morris has given us sketchy characters that need more fine tuning than this production […] could give it. Only Holmberg seemed to dig deeply within himself to create a complete character from Morris' skeletal outline."

Adjective
  1. 1
    very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to or forming or attached to a skeleton wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
cadaverousattenuatedbonycadaverouscorpselikeemacerated

Example

More examples

"I finally understand the skeletal system."

Etymology

From skeleton + -al.

Related phrases

Eiken skeletal dysplasiadiffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosisskeletal ageskeletal animationskeletal eroding bandskeletal fluorosisskeletal formulaskeletal muscleskeletal soilskeletal systemskeletal-muscle pump

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