oste-

1. variant of osteo- before a vowel:

   osteitis.

Example Sentences

In the early 1990s, a Swedish professor of food chemistry named Rickard Öste was working with a group of other scientists to research lactose, a sugar that’s found in milk that about two-thirds of adults can’t properly digest.

From Slate

Rickard Öste joined forces with his brother Bjorn, a software engineer, to found a company that would bring oat milk to market.

From Slate

Oatly was founded in 1994 by Rickard Oste, a professor of food chemistry and nutrition in Sweden, and his brother Bjorn Oste.

From New York Times

The vegan food and drink products maker, founded by brothers Rickard and Björn Öste in the 1990s, said the UK factory would have the capacity to grow and produce up to 450 million litres of drink per year.

From BBC

The company was founded in 1994 by Rickard Öste, a researcher at the university of Lund.

From The Guardian

Words That Use oste-

What does oste- mean?

Oste- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “bone.” It is often used in medical terms, especially in anatomy.

Oste- comes from the Greek ostéon, meaning “bone.”

Oste- is a variant of osteo-, which loses its -o- when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use osteo- article.

Examples of oste-

An example of a word you may have encountered that features oste- is ostealgia, meaning “a pain in a bone.”

We know oste- means “bone.” The combining form –algia, from the Greek álgos, means “pain.” Ostealgia, then, literally translates to “bone pain.”

What are some words that use the combining form oste-?

• osteal
• osteitic 
• osteitis
• osteichthyan

What are some other forms that oste- may be commonly confused with?

• oto-
• ortho-

Despite appearances, the word ostentatious, meaning “characterized by pretentious or conspicuous show in an attempt to impress others,” does not use the combining form oste-. Learn what ostentatious makes so “showy” at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

Given that oste- means “bone” and –ectomy means “excision,” what kind of medical procedure is an ostectomy?