sternocleidomastoid

1. 1.

   one of two thick muscles running from the sternum and clavicle to the mastoid and occipital bone; turns head obliquely to the opposite side; when acting together they flex the neck and extend the head

   Synonymssternocleidomastoid musclesternocleido mastoideusmusculus sternocleidomastoideus

   Broaderskeletal muscle

   Part ofneck

Other forms of sternocleidomastoid

plural

sternocleidomastoids·

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 sternocleidomastoid

What does sternocleidomastoid mean?

sternocleidomastoid means "one of two thick muscles running from the sternum and clavicle to the mastoid and occipital bone; turns head obliquely to the opposite side; when acting together they flex the neck and extend the head".

How many syllables are in sternocleidomastoid?

sternocleidomastoid has 6 syllables: ster-no-clei-do-ma-stoid. The stress falls on "do".

What is another word for sternocleidomastoid?

Close synonyms include sternocleidomastoid muscle, sternocleido mastoideus, musculus sternocleidomastoideus. 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 sternocleidomastoid a common word?

sternocleidomastoid is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.