Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The bone of the ankle that articulates with the tibia and fibula to form the ankle joint. Also called anklebone, astragalus.
- n. The ankle.
- n. A sloping mass of rock debris at the base of a cliff.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In anat: The ankle or ankle-joint: as, os tali, the bone of the ankle.
- n. The ankle-bone or huckle-bone; the astragalus.
- n. In ornithology, same as calcaneum, 2.
- n. That variety of clubfoot in which the heel rests on the ground and the toes are drawn up; talipes calcaneus.
- n. In entomology, the apex or distal end of the tibia, articulated with the tarsus.
- n. In architecture, the slope or inclination of any work, as of a wall inclined on its face, either by decreasing its thickness toward the summit or by leaning it against a bank.
- n. In fort, the slope of a work, as a bastion, rampart, or parapet.
- n. The mass of rocky fragments which lies at the base of a cliff or precipitous rock, and which has been formed by the accumulation of pieces brought down from above by the action of gravity, rain, frost, etc.; scree; debris; wash. See these words.
Wiktionary
- n. anatomy The bone of the ankle.
- n. geology A sloping heap of fragments of rock lying at the foot of a precipice.
- n. architecture The slope of an embankment wall, which is thicker at the bottom than at the top.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Anat.) The astragalus.
- n. (Surg.) A variety of clubfoot (Talipes calcaneus). See the Note under Talipes.
- n. (Fort.) A slope; the inclination of the face of a work.
- n. (Geol.) A sloping heap of fragments of rock lying at the foot of a precipice.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sloping mass of loose rocks at the base of a cliff
- n. the bone in the ankle that articulates with the leg bones to form the ankle joint
Etymologies
- From French talus. (Wiktionary)
- Latin tālus, ankle.French talus, from Old French talu, sloping side of an earthwork, from Latin talūtium, gold-bearing outcrop, perhaps of Celtic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Opposable big toes and nail-bearing tips on the fingers and toes confirm the fossil is a primate, and a foot bone called the talus bone links Ida directly to humans, Hurum said.”
“The talus is the second largest of the tarsal bones.”
“This fort is what engineers call a talus, being, as I suppose, the exact area, very nearly, of the top of a cliff overlooking the town.”
Memoirs of 30 Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers
“The talus is a very important bone in the ankle," said study co-author Joseph Kou, M.D., attending surgeon at Muir Orthopaedic Specialists in Walnut Creek, Calif.”
“Below, there is a vertical drop of 30 feet to the top of the rough talus which is as steep as rocks and earth will lie.”
Archeological Investigations Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 76
“A talus is a person, and I would assume that in cities in which slavery is legal, anyone with sufficient funds could go to a facility such as yours and order a talus built -- ”
“I take it that's the part covering what I would call the talus's chest. ”
“Because a talus is a person," Silk continued, "both in law and in fact.”
“Reached the interior "talus" [432] of the rampart. [”
“The James Gang and I began exploring the west talus slope where a barely discernible trail angled down the steep, crumbly slope.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘talus’.
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phrontistery-t
from phrontistery.info
tyromancy, tyroma, tyroid, tyriasis, tyrannicide, typtology, typothetae, typomania, typography, typographia, typhonic, typhomania and 930 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Mountaineering
mountaineering terms:
some of these more unusual ones came from the book Nanda Devi: Exploration and Ascentmoraine, cirque, couloir, arete, topee, gendarme, jat, dotial, bhotia, coolies, sahib, bharal and 9 more...
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Blood Meridian: The Words
Words from Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"
argosy, ossuary, thaumaturge, devonian, ristras, chartvail, catafalque, suzerain, argonauts, unrectified, surbated, pyrolatrous and 86 more...
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Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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Anatomically Correct
canthus, vibrissa, femoral, sphenoid, dura mater, pia mater, epiglottis, glottis, mons veneris, plaque, tibia, ulna and 96 more...
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euphonic logorrhea
cephalopodous, plumulaceous, oblomovism, etiolation, pavonine, somnolent, logorrhea, fulguration, gossamer, prestidigitation, daffodil, inchoate and 174 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 332 more...
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the earth
Planetary chaos: terrain, landscape and geology excluding rocks. (See "the geologist" list for the latter.)
butte, karst, caldera, mesa, laccolith, cwm, crater, alp, precipice, sierra, badlands, prairie and 122 more...
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Human Anatomy
Terms relating to the human body, primarily in osteology.
humerus, scapula, ulna, radius, maxilla, mandible, mandible, occipital bone, parietal bone, frontal bone, tibia, talus and 104 more...
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
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Lees
Items of little or no value that are left behind by physical or biological processes other than passing through an alimentary canal. See also Valse's Leftovers and reesetee's Hogwash! for other tak...
lees, dross, dregs, orts, debris, jetsam, flotsam, rubbage, rubbish, trash, refuse, junk and 130 more...
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Landscape
riparian, littoral, talus, fen, ambit, savanna, remnant prairie, shortgrass prairie, tallgrass prairie, marsh, swamp, marshy and 199 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for talus.

hernesheir Geology: cf. scree Jan 15, 2009