tendon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a strong band of fibrous connective tissue that attaches a muscle to a bone and transmits the muscle's force

   The runner strained a tendon behind her ankle during training.

2. 2
   noun

   a steel cable, wire, or bar placed under tension to strengthen prestressed concrete

   Each tendon was tightened before the bridge deck was put under load.

Borrowed from French tendon, associated with tendre ("to stretch"), from Latin tendere. The anatomical form and sense may also reflect Greek tenon ("sinew, tendon"); both families evoke something stretched taut.

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