osteomalacia
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.56 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A softening of adult bones due to inadequate mineralization; the adult equivalent of rickets.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In some skeletons from a 19th-century hospital site in The Netherlands, macroscopic changes suggestive of osteomalacia were present, but firm diagnosis required microscopic study of a bone sample to verify defective mineralization at the microstructural level."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃ésth₁ Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon)der. English osteo- English malacia English osteomalacia From osteo- + malacia.