From late Middle English spyne, from Old French espine (French épine) or its source, Latin spīna.

• IPA: /spaɪn/

spine (plural spines)

1. (skeleton, zootomy) A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.

   Synonyms: backbone, spinal column, vertebral column

   Hyponyms: C-spine, cervical spine, L-spine, railway spine, T-spine

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗, page 266 ↗:

     The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

   1. (figurative) Courage or assertiveness.
2. Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.

   Hyponyms: anterior superior iliac spine, dendritic spine, neural spine

3. The narrow, bound edge of a book that encloses the inner edges of the pages, facing outwards when the book is on a shelf and typically bearing the title and the author's and publisher's name.

   Synonyms: back

4. (zootomy, botany) A pointed, fairly rigid protuberance or needlelike structure on an animal, shell, or plant.

   Synonyms: needle, prickle, quill, spicule, spike, thorn, virgula

5. (botany) The heartwood of trees.
6. (neuroscience) Ellipsis of dendritic spine.
7. A linear payscale operated by some large organizations that allows flexibility for local and specific conditions.

   Synonyms: pay spine

8. (geology) A tall mass of viscous lava extruded from a volcano.
9. The stiffness of an arrow.

• spina bifida
• erector spinae
• spinal canal
• spinal column

• spinal cord
• spiniferous
• spinigerous
• spinigrade
• spinule
• spinoidal

• French: colonne vertébrale, échine (of animals), épine dorsale
• German: Rückgrat, Wirbelsäule
• Italian: colonna vertebrale
• Portuguese: espinhaço, espinha, coluna, coluna vertebral
• Russian: позвоно́чник
• Spanish: columna vertebral, espinazo

• German: Rückgrat
• Russian: хребе́т

• French: dos
• German: Rücken, Buchrücken
• Italian: costa, dorso
• Portuguese: dorso, lombada
• Russian: корешо́к
• Spanish: lomo

• French: épine, piquant
• German: Stachel, Dorn
• Italian: spina dorsale
• Portuguese: espinho
• Russian: шип
• Spanish: espina