osteoclasy

O1S1T1E1O1C3L1A1S1Y4

noun

The surgical fracture and resetting of a bone.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounosteoclasy (plural osteoclasies)

plural osteoclasies

  1. medicineThe surgical fracture and resetting of a bone.

    He had performed upwards of twenty osteotomies, and nearly as many osteoclasies.

    1884, Gaillard's Medical Journal - Volume 38, page 434
    2 more examples

    We need not here discuss the performance of instrumental osteoclasy, for it has never been received with favour in this country.

    1891, The Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery

    The tendency to flat-foot acquired through the flabbiness of the ligamentous apparatus during the attempts of the child at locomotion requires straightening and sustaining by a shoe made strong enough to support the ankle; scoliosis, a Sayre's plater-of-Paris or a felt jacket; the rhachitical groove round and above the insertion of the diaphragm, well-directed gumnastics of the chest; inflexible and ugly curvatures of the long bones, either osteoclasy (fracturing of the curved bone while leaving the periosteum intact, and resetting) or osteotomy (straightening the bone after it has undergone a cutting operation).

    1896, Abraham Jacobi, Therapeutics of Infancy and Childhood, page 100

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekκλάσις“breaking”
  2. Ancient Greekὀστέον“bone”
  3. Englishosteoclasy

From Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon, “bone”) + Ancient Greek κλάσις (klásis, “breaking”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

osteoclasy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/osteoclasy

MLA

“osteoclasy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/osteoclasy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “osteoclasy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/osteoclasy.

Source: osteoclasy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.