anatomy

English Online Dictionary. What means anatomy‎? What does anatomy mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English anatomie, from Old French anatomie, from Latin anatomia, from Ancient Greek *ἀνατομία (*anatomía), from ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “dissection”, literally “cutting up”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut, incise”). By surface analysis, ana- +‎ -tomy. Doublet of ottomy.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ənăt'-ə-m(ē), IPA^(key): /əˈnæt.ə.mi/

Noun

anatomy (countable and uncountable, plural anatomies)

1. The art of studying the different parts of any organized body, to discover their situation, structure, and economy.

   Synonym: dissection

2. The science that deals with the form and structure of organic bodies; anatomical structure or organization.

   Hyponyms: anthropotomy, phytotomy, zootomy
3. (countable) A treatise or book on anatomy.
4. (by extension) The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts.

   Synonym: analysis

5. (colloquial) The form of an individual.

6. (euphemistic) The human body, especially in reference to the private parts.
7. (archaic) A skeleton, or dead body.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1 p.68:

     So did the Ægyptians, who in the middest of their banquetings, and in the full of their greatest cheere, caused the anatomy of a dead man to be brought before them, as a memorandum and warning to their guests.

8. The physical or functional organization of an organism, or part of it.

Hyponyms

• anatomy of function, angioanatomy, comparative anatomy, gross anatomy, macroanatomy, microanatomy

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• phytotomy
• zootomy