Meaning & use
biceps femoris nerve
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnicalmedical
A small nerve branch that supplies the biceps femoris muscle in the back of the thigh.
Grammar: Countable but usually used in the singular with 'the'. It can be preceded by 'a' when mentioning one of several branches.
Patterns
- the biceps femoris nerve
- a branch of the biceps femoris nerve
The biceps femoris nerve arises from the sciatic nerve in the thigh.
Damage to the biceps femoris nerve can cause weakness in knee flexion.
Word forms
| plural | biceps femoris nerves |
|---|
Common combinations
- biceps femoris nerve injury
- A biceps femoris nerve injury may result from deep thigh trauma.
- biceps femoris nerve branch
- The surgeon identified the biceps femoris nerve branch during dissection.
- biceps femoris nerve supply
- The biceps femoris nerve supply is crucial for hamstring function.
Synonyms and how they differ
- nerve to biceps femoris
- A descriptive alternative used in some anatomy texts; it means the same thing but is less fixed as a term.
Word family
- biceps femoris noun
- The muscle itself, one of the hamstrings.
Commonly confused: biceps femoris nerve or sciatic nerve?
biceps femoris nerve vs sciatic nerve
The sciatic nerve is the large main nerve; the biceps femoris nerve is a smaller branch of it.
Practice
Which nerve supplies the biceps femoris muscle?
Choose one answer.
The biceps femoris nerve is the specific branch that innervates the biceps femoris. The femoral nerve supplies the front of the thigh, the obturator nerve supplies the medial thigh, and the tibial nerve is a larger branch of the sciatic nerve that does not directly supply this muscle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “biceps femoris nerve”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.