The Collaborative International Dictionary
Occipital \Oc*cip"i*tal\, a. [Cf. F. occipital.] (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the occiput, or back part of the head, or to the occipital bone.
Occipital bone (Anat.), the bone which forms the posterior segment of the skull and surrounds the great foramen by which the spinal cord leaves the cranium. In the higher vertebrates it is usually composed of four bones, which become consolidated in the adult.
Occipital point (Anat.), the point of the occiput in the mesial plane farthest from the ophryon.
Wiktionary
n. The bone at the back of the skull.
WordNet
n. a saucer-shaped membrane bone that forms the back of the skull
Wikipedia
The occipital bone , a saucer-shaped membrane bone, is the main bone of the occiput, situated at the back and lower part of the skull. It is trapezoidal in shape and curved on itself. It is pierced by a large oval opening, the foramen magnum, through which the cranial cavity communicates with the vertebral canal.
- The curved, expanded plate behind the foramen magnum is named the squama occipitalis.
- The thick, somewhat quadrilateral piece in front of the foramen is called the basilar part of occipital bone, - the basioccipital.
- On either side of the foramen are the lateral parts of occipital bone, -the exoccipitals.
Usage examples of "occipital bone".
It had given her a depressed fracture of the occipital bone on the right side of the back of the skull.
He touched the girl's occipital bone, the parietal bones of the cap of the skull.
Bergeron went to his tray and checked the digits on each occipital bone, then those on the small cards I'd set beside the skeletons, and positioned the skulls accordingly.
His skull was a mass of flickering biocircuits that wound in a double spiral that began on the top of the occipital bone, ran up, meeting and blending at the crown of his head, then separating again as they came down behind his ears and into the nape of his neck.
He looked a little like Dr Iannis, with his thin grey hair and prominent occipital bone.
He would wait at the end of the passage, around the corner, aim for the occipital bone.
For a while there I thought I might be dead and Lucifer was welcoming me to my new home by dancing a cloven-hoofed jig on my occipital bone.