Meaning & use
malar bone
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablemedicaltechnical
The cheekbone, which forms the raised part of the face under the eye and helps shape the eye socket.
Grammar: Plural malar bones: there is one on each side of the face.
Patterns
- fracture of the malar bone
- the malar bone of someone
The fall left him with a fractured malar bone and a swollen eye.
The surgeon repaired the damaged malar bone with a small plate.
Anthropologists measured the width of the malar bone on the skull.
Word forms
| plural | malar bones |
|---|
Common combinations
- fractured malar bone
- A fractured malar bone can change the shape of the face.
- prominent malar bone
- She has a prominent malar bone that shows in portraits.
- injure the malar bone
- The punch injured his malar bone.
- the malar bone and the eye socket
- The scan showed the malar bone and the eye socket were both intact.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cheekbone
- Cheekbone is the everyday word, and malar bone is the more formal anatomical name.
- zygomatic bone
- Zygomatic bone is the current medical term for the same bone, and it is more common in modern texts.
Word family
- malar adjective
- relating to the cheek or cheekbone
- zygoma noun
- another term for the cheekbone
- zygomatic adjective
- relating to the cheekbone
Commonly confused: malar bone or mandible?
malar bone vs mandible
The mandible is the lower jaw bone, while the malar bone is the cheekbone higher up on the face.
Practice
A hard blow to the cheek can break the ____, the bone beneath the eye.
Choose one answer.
The malar bone is the cheekbone. The mandible is the lower jaw, the clavicle is the collarbone and the femur is the thigh bone.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “malar bone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.