Meanings
- 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 1001 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 - arachnologyThe third segment from the end of an arachnid's leg, between the patella and metatarsus.
- musical instrumentA musical instrument of the flute kind, originally made of the leg bone of an animal.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
nounthe inner and thicker of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latintībia“shin bone, leg”
- Englishtibia
Borrowed from Latin tībia (“shin bone, leg”).
More words from Latin
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
tibia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia
“tibia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tibia,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tibia.
Source: tibia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.