intercostal

1. 1.

   muscles between the ribs; they contract during inspiration

   Synonymsintercostal musclemusculus intercostalis

   Broaderskeletal muscle

1. 1.

   located or occurring between the ribs

   “intercostal muscles”

   anatomy

Other forms of intercostal

plural

intercostals·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about intercostal

What does intercostal mean?

intercostal means "muscles between the ribs; they contract during inspiration". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in intercostal?

intercostal has 4 syllables: in-ter-co-stal. The stress falls on "ter".

What is another word for intercostal?

Close synonyms include intercostal muscle, musculus intercostalis. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is intercostal a common word?

intercostal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.