Spinal

How to spell spinal

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spinal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spinal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the spine or backbone, or to the spinal cord within it.

Spinal in a sentence

• The surgeon explained the risks of the spinal operation in plain terms.

• A fall from the ladder left him with a serious spinal injury.

Where does spinal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Late Latin spinalis, an adjective meaning 'of the backbone', which was built on the noun spina. In classical Latin spina literally meant a thorn or a prickle, and it was extended to the bony ridge running down an animal's back because the projecting vertebrae looked like a row of spines. English took the adjective in through medical and anatomical writing during the 1500s, where it was needed to describe the spinal column, the spinal cord, and related structures. The same spina root sits inside the everyday word 'spine' and also lies behind 'spinach', whose seeds and leaves were once thought to be prickly. Because the stress falls firmly on the first syllable and the ending settles into a soft '-al', the spelling stays close to its Latin source and holds few surprises.

How the word is built

• spin- (from Latin spina: thorn, backbone)
• -al (adjective suffix)