Skeletal

How to spell skeletal

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce skeletal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does skeletal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the skeleton or bones; also describing something extremely thin or reduced to its barest framework.

Skeletal in a sentence

• The X-ray revealed a skeletal injury near the wrist.

• After the illness her skeletal frame frightened the whole family.

Where does skeletal come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Skeletal is the adjective formed from skeleton, which English took in the late 1500s from the modern Latin sceletus, itself borrowed from the Greek skeletos. The Greek word literally meant 'dried up' and was used as a noun for a dried-up body or mummy, drawn from the verb skellein, meaning 'to dry out' or 'to parch'. The idea was that what remained of a body after the flesh had withered was the bare framework of bones. English first used skeleton for that bony framework and only later, in the 1800s, built skeletal to describe anything relating to or resembling it. The single l in the middle is the usual spelling trap, since the word sounds as if it might want a double letter; remembering the parent word skeleton, also spelled with one l, keeps it straight.

How the word is built

• skelet- (from Greek skeletos: dried up, mummy)
• -al (adjective suffix)