Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The consolidation of bones or their parts to form a single unit.
  • noun The stiffening and immobility of a joint as the result of disease, trauma, surgery, or abnormal bone fusion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In anatomy and zoology, the consolidation or fusion of two or more bones in one, or the union of the different parts of a bone; bony union; synosteosis: as, the ankylosis of the cranial bones one with another; the ankylosis of the different elements of the temporal bone; the ankylosis of an epiphysis with the shaft of a bone.
  • noun In pathology, stiffness and immovability of a joint; morbid adhesion of the articular ends of contiguous bones.
  • noun Improperly spelled anchylosis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as anchylosis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy The growing together of bones to form a single unit.
  • noun medicine The stiffening of a joint as the result of such abnormal fusion.
  • noun figuratively An onset of stiffness or inflexibility.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun abnormal adhesion and rigidity of the bones of a joint

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek ankulōsis, stiffening of the joints, from ankuloun, to crook, bend, from ankulos, crooked, bent.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀγκύλωσις (ankulōsis, "a stiffening of the joints"), from ἀγκυλόειν (ankuloein, "to crook, bend"), from ἀγκύλος (ankulos, "bent, or crooked").

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Examples

  • But Marxism needs to develop; get rid of a certain ankylosis [pathological stiffening]; interpret today's conditions with an objective, scientific perspective; conduct itself like a revolutionary force and not like a psuedorevolutionary church. [applause] These are history's paradoxes.

    CASTRO SPEECH CLOSING CULTURAL CONGRESS 1968

  • It is only in cases of severe injury, where the articular portions of the bones are damaged at the time of infliction of the injury, and where the articulation remains exposed for weeks at a time, together with immobility of the parts because of attending pain, that permanent ankylosis results.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • In the average instance, because of arthritis which persists for a considerable length of time, more or less ankylosis results.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • The treatment recommended by us for open joints, in which we wish to prevent ankylosis, is, first, to shave all hair from the area surrounding the wound, following with a thorough cleansing of the skin and disinfection of the wound, and then to inject a twenty per cent Lugol's solution in glycerin into the wound.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • If extensive necrosis of cartilage takes place, the attendant pain will be sufficient to cause the animal to favor the diseased part and such immobilization enhances early ankylosis -- nature's substitute for resolution in this disease.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • Chronic arthritis with destruction of articular surfaces and ankylosis, is seldom observed.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • Subjects must be kept in slings until union of bones has become established, and as a rule there will then exist marked ankylosis.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • When these tendon sheaths are opened, there follows a reaction which is quite analogous to that which exists in arthritic synovitis, but instead of ankylosis, adhesions with thecal obliteration occur.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • When the disease is confined to the lower tarsal bones, lameness subsides as soon as the degenerative changes are checked and ankylosis occurs.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • However, if synovial discharge persists too long because of tardy closure of an open joint, there is great danger of infection gaining entrance into the synovial cavity, or in some instances, desiccation of endothelial cells of the articulation occurs, in areas, and the reactionary inflammation eventually results in ankylosis.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

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