Etymology Borrowing from French hyoïde, from New Latin hȳoīdēs, from Ancient Greek ῡ̔οειδής (hūoeidḗs, “shaped like the letter "υ"”), from ὖ (û, “the Greek letter upsilon”) + -ο- (-o-) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-like, -oid”).
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Shaped like a U, or like the letter upsilon (υ).
This stick has a hyoid shape.
The hyoid bone in her throat flutters as if discharging some subvocal rosary.1969, JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition:
1 more example
Beebe referred to these never-before-seen creatures as monsters, as devils and dragons. But he though of their bodies as philosophies, traditions of thought, as schools of dragonism. A college drop-out, he wondered what was to be learned at their great university: An astronesthes with batteries of hells-eye lights on its cheeks, a looped string of twenty lavender glowing beads suspended from its hyoid dewlap.2023, Brad Fox, The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths:
Etymology Borrowing from French hyoïde, from New Latin hȳoīdēs, from Ancient Greek ῡ̔οειδής (hūoeidḗs, “shaped like the letter "υ"”), from ὖ (û, “the Greek letter upsilon”) + -ο- (-o-) + -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-like, -oid”).
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Anatomy, Medicine, SciencesAbbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of hyoid bone.
the vulture, relinquishing its title, surely in natural justice gave me a right to this femur, this curiously distorted hyoid?1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:
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A curved line resembling the English uppercase letter U.