Meanings
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe second lateral plate in the plastron of turtles.
Origin
Coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1872 as hyo- + plastron. Superseded the earlier hyosternum, a nominalised form of the French adjective hyosternal, coined by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1818. The prefix is from Ancient Greek ῡ̔οειδής (hūoeidḗs, “shaped like the letter Υ”), ultimately from ὗ (hû, “the Greek letter upsilon”), reflecting its original description as the sternal attachment of the sternohyoid muscle (whose other attachment is on the hyoid bone).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
hyoplastron. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyoplastron
“hyoplastron.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyoplastron. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hyoplastron,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hyoplastron.
Source: hyoplastron on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.