tibia

T1I1B3I1A1
/ˈtɪbiə/

noun

The inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone.

Similar
bone fluteshinshinboneshin bone
Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

nountibia (plural tibias or tibiae)

plural tibias · plural tibiae

  1. anatomyThe inner and usually the larger of the two bones of the leg or hind limb below the knee, the shinbone.

    [Sherman:] I'm a black belt, boys. Last week, I broke my karate coach's tibia and fibula when I flipped him!

    2017, James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, Pottymouth and Stoopid, page 100
    1 more example

    Her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) are torn and Vonn has a lateral fracture of the tibial plateau, the upper end of the tibia or shin bone.

    2013 February 6, Jen Christiensen, “Vonn’s injury ‘career-delayer,’ not ‘career ender’”, in CNN
  2. biologyThe second segment from the end of an insect's leg, between the femur and tarsus.
  3. arachnologyThe third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.
  4. musical instrumentA musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.

    The musician on the left is playing the zampogna, a bagpipe with two chanters and two drones. The zampogna is thought to be the bag-provided descendant of the ancient mouth-blown divergent pipes of the Romans, known as the tibia.

    1975, Francis M. Collinson, The bagpipe: the history of a musical instrument, page 188

Synonyms & antonyms

Similar
bone fluteshinshinboneshin bone

nounthe inner and thicker of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle

Similar
shinboneshin boneshin
Broader
leg bone
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latintībia“shin bone, leg”
  2. Englishtibia

Borrowed from Latin tībia (“shin bone, leg”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

German Tibia
  • Tibiatype of ancient flute
Polish aulos
  • aulostype of ancient flute

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with tibia

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

tibia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia

MLA

“tibia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tibia,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia.

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