coxal

[ kok-suhl ]

adjective

1. Anatomy.
   1. relating to or being the innominate bone:

      The sacrum, at the base of the vertebral column, is wedged between the two coxal bones of the pelvis.

   2. being or relating to the joint of the hip:

      The coxal joint is the point where the ball of the femur inserts into the socket of the hip bone.

2. Zoology. being or relating to the first or proximal segment of the leg of insects and other arthropods:

   The tick digests the blood by means of a structure called the coxal gland, located on each of its front legs.

Other Words From

• post·cox·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of coxal¹

coxa ( def ) + -al ¹( def )

Example Sentences

In most cases, however, the palp loses its exopodite and it often disappears altogether, while the coxal segment forms the body of the mandible, with a masticatory edge variously armed with teeth and spines.

From Project Gutenberg

The Iliac Bone.—The iliac or coxal bone, is a paired or non-symmetrical bone, united below to its fellow of the opposite side, while it is separated from it above by the sacrum.

From Project Gutenberg

Fritz Müller states that certain species of Melita are 332distinguished from all other amphipods by the females having “the coxal lamellæ of the penultimate pair of feet produced into hook-like processes, of which the males lay hold with the hands of the first pair.”

From Project Gutenberg

The five pairs of appendages of the post-oral somites of the head or prosoma thus constituted all primitively carry gnathobasic projections on their coxal joints, which act as hemignaths: in the more specialized forms the mandibular gnathobases cease to develop.

From Project Gutenberg

Orifice of coxal gland situated just behind that of the foetid gland.

From Project Gutenberg