English Reference

Word

femur

Phoneticsfe·mur

US/ˈfimɝ/

UK/fˈiːmɐ/

Definition

n. the longest and strongest bone in your body. It runs from your hip to your knee.

n. the longest and strongest bone in the human body, extending from the hip to the knee. It is the primary weight-bearing bone of the lower limb.

Examples

“The femur is the largest bone in the human body.”

“Doctors often use the femur as a reference point when measuring the length of a patient's leg.”

“The femur is uniquely adapted to withstand the immense compressive forces generated during activities like running or jumping, featuring a thick cortical shell and a hollow medullary cavity.”

Examples

simple

“The femur is the largest bone in the human body.”

contextual

“Doctors often use the femur as a reference point when measuring the length of a patient's leg.”

complex

“The femur is uniquely adapted to withstand the immense compressive forces generated during activities like running or jumping, featuring a thick cortical shell and a hollow medullary cavity.”

Real-World Examples

“The team recovered pieces of people: craniums, jawbones and femurs.”
The Conversation · 28 Aug 2026

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin femur (“thigh”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Word family

femoralAdjectivefemurNoun

Domain

Anatomy

This entry

Level
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Occasional
Updated

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English Reference