adjective

• 1Anatomy
  Made of cartilage.

  ‘It is formed by cartilaginous, bony and connective tissue structures.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The human larynx is composed of cartilaginous tissue that early in adulthood progressively undergoes ossification.’
  • ‘There are three types of joints, fibrous, cartilaginous, and synovial.’
  • ‘Although most of the nasal structures are cartilaginous, the nasal bones usually are fractured in an injury.’
  • ‘Over the years, a 64-year-old man has had repeated bouts of tenderness of the cartilaginous part of both ears that typically last for one to two weeks.’

  Synonyms

  chewy, leathery, gristly, stringy, fibrous, sinewy, cartilaginous

  1. 1.1Zoology (of a vertebrate animal) having a skeleton of cartilage.
     ‘Since sturgeons and paddlefish have lost many traits of most bony fish - they lack scales and have a cartilaginous skeleton - their fossil records are very sparse.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The freshwater sawfish, a ray, is related to stingrays, skates, sharks, and other fishes with cartilaginous skeletons.’
     • ‘This property (among others) allows the tail to be light and flexible, yet stiff enough to generate thrust in the absence of a bony or cartilaginous skeleton.’
     • ‘These organisms had a cartilaginous internal skeleton and a bony exoskeleton.’
     • ‘Like all sharks, dogfish have no true bones but make do with a cartilaginous skeleton.’