rachis

Other forms of rachis

plural

rhachises

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 rachis

What does rachis mean?

rachis means "axis of a compound leaf or compound inflorescence". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in rachis?

rachis has 2 syllables: ra-chis. The stress falls on "ra".

What is another word for rachis?

Close synonyms include spinal column, vertebral column, spine, backbone, back. 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 rachis a common word?

rachis 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.