Biceps

How to spell biceps

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce biceps

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does biceps mean?

1. nounThe large muscle at the front of the upper arm that bends the elbow.

Biceps in a sentence

• He strained his biceps lifting the heavy box onto the shelf.

• The trainer suggested curls to build her biceps over several weeks.

Where does biceps come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin biceps, meaning 'two-headed', formed from bi- 'two' and the stem of caput, the Latin word for 'head'. Anatomists adopted it in the seventeenth century because the muscle on the front of the upper arm originates from two separate tendons, or 'heads', that attach to the shoulder. The same logic gives us 'triceps' (three heads) at the back of the arm. A useful point for spellers: because the Latin word already ends in -ceps, the form 'biceps' is in origin singular as well as plural, even though everyday speech has produced the back-formed 'bicep'. The caput root that hides inside the ending also surfaces in familiar words like 'captain' and 'decapitate', all tracing back to the idea of a head.

How the word is built

• bi- (two)
• ceps (from Latin caput: head), so literally 'two heads', naming a muscle with two points of origin