pectoralis minor

Meanings

nounpectoralis minor (plural pectoralis minors or pectorales minores)

The muscle that covers the heart organ.
Halsted had seen Volkmann remove not just the breast, but a thin, fan-like muscle spread out under the breast called the pectoralis minor.
2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies, Fourth Estate (2011), page 64

nouna skeletal muscle that draws down the scapula or raises the ribs

Similar

musculus pectoralis minorsmaller pectoral muscle

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry

APA

pectoralis minor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pectoralis%20minor

MLA

“pectoralis minor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pectoralis%20minor. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pectoralis minor,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pectoralis%20minor.