Cartilage

How to spell cartilage

9 letters · 3 syllables

The most common mistake is cartilege. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

cartilege cartilage

What people typed instead

• cartilege3 people

How to pronounce cartilage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cartilage mean?

1. nounThe firm, flexible connective tissue that cushions joints and shapes parts of the body such as the nose and ears.

Cartilage in a sentence

• The surgeon removed a small piece of torn cartilage from his knee.

• Years of running had worn away the cartilage in her hip.

Where does cartilage come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes directly from the Latin cartilago, which simply meant 'gristle', the tough but flexible tissue found in joints, the nose, and the ears. The Latin term is thought to be related to cratis, meaning 'wickerwork' or a lattice of woven twigs, a fitting image for the springy, mesh-like material that the body uses to cushion and connect bones. English took the word in during the late 1300s, largely through medical and anatomical writing, and it has kept its Latin shape with very little change. The trap for the modern writer lies in the unstressed middle and the ending: the second syllable sounds like a faint schwa, so it is easy to drop the 'i' and write 'cartlage', and the ending is the soft '-age' that rhymes with 'porridge', not '-idge'. Remembering the Latin cartilago, with its clear 'i', helps anchor that quiet vowel in the spelling.

How the word is built

• cartilag- (from Latin cartilago: gristle)
• -e (silent final letter)