The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hyoid \Hy"oid\, a. [Gr. ? fr. the letter [Upsilon] + e'i^dos form: cf. F. hyo["i]de.]
Having the form of an arch, or of the Greek letter upsilon [[Upsilon]].
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(Anat.) Of or pertaining to the bony or cartilaginous arch which supports the tongue. Sometimes applied to the tongue itself.
Hyoid arch (Anat.), the arch of cartilaginous or bony segments, which connects the base of the tongue with either side of the skull.
Hyoid bone (Anat.), the bone in the base of the tongue, the middle part of the hyoid arch.
Wiktionary
n. A bone in the human neck which supports the tongue.
WordNet
n. a U-shaped bone at the base of the tongue that supports the tongue muscles [syn: hyoid, os hyoideum]
Wikipedia
The hyoid bone (lingual bone or tongue-bone) (; Latin os hyoideum) is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies at the level of the base of the mandible in the front and the third cervical vertebra (C3) behind.
Unlike other bones, the hyoid is only distantly articulated to other bones by muscles or ligaments. The hyoid is anchored by muscles from the anterior, posterior and inferior directions, and aids in tongue movement and swallowing. The hyoid bone provides attachment to the muscles of the floor of the mouth and the tongue above, the larynx below, and the epiglottis and pharynx behind.
Its name is derived .
Usage examples of "hyoid bone".
The hyoid bone was splintered and the thyroid and tracheal cartilage crushed.
In addition, she had been strangled by ligature, crushing her hyoid bone and causing extensive hemorrhaging into the throat muscles and soft tissue.
He snapped it open and had it against the man's throat in a matter of seconds, just above the cartilage of the laryngeal prominence and below the floating hyoid bone.
She clamped down on him and leaned in, stroking up and down, imagining cracking his hyoid bone and watching him choke to death on his own blood.
Alissa found what she was searching for, and with a flex of her fingers she felt his hyoid bone snap.
Krysty followed up with an equally devastating punch from her left fist, aimed a little higher, beneath the point of the chin, fracturing the hyoid bone and causing irreparable damage to the epiglottis.
The hyoid bone is malformed, and the thyroid prominence is absent.
But I noticed almost immediately that there was extensive damage to the laryngeal structures, especially the hyoid bone, which in both cases was fractured.
Face and neck congested and dark red, bruises on the arms and legs, contusions on the face, a fractured hyoid bone and torn thyroid cartilage.
Bingham was in the process of freeing the muscles from around the thyroid cartilage and the hyoid bone.