Muscular

How to spell muscular

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce muscular

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does muscular mean?

1. adjectiveHaving well-developed muscles; physically strong and powerfully built.
2. adjectiveRelating to or affecting the muscles of the body.

Muscular in a sentence

• Years of rowing gave him a lean, muscular frame.

• The physiotherapist treated the muscular strain in his lower back.

• The bodyguard was tall and noticeably muscular.

• The disease causes gradual muscular weakness over many years.

Where does muscular come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin musculus, which literally meant 'little mouse', a diminutive of mus 'mouse'. Roman anatomists thought that a flexing muscle rippling under the skin looked like a small mouse moving, so they borrowed the homely animal word for the body tissue. From musculus came the late Latin adjective muscularis, meaning 'relating to muscle', and English adopted muscular in the seventeenth century by way of scientific and medical writing. The same 'little mouse' root also gives us 'mussel', the shellfish, whose plump shape reminded people of the same creature. The spelling keeps the Latin -ar ending rather than -er, which is the small trap: it is muscle but muscul-ar.

How the word is built

• muscul- (from Latin musculus: little mouse, hence muscle)
• -ar (adjective suffix: relating to)