ilium

• ilion (4th to 7th centuries)

Borrowed from Latin īlium (“lower abdomen”), from īle (“flank”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪlɪəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪliəm

ilium (plural ilia)

2. (anatomy) The upper and widest of the three bones that make up each side of the hipbone.

   Holonyms: hip bone, os coxae < pelvis

   Comeronyms: acetabulum, ischium, pubis

4. (anatomy, obsolete) The ileum, part of the small intestine (in modern usage, misspelling of ileum).

In modern usage, the spelling ilium always refers to the bones of the hip and pelvis whereas the spelling ileum always refers to the last part of the small intestine. To remember the different spellings of these identically pronounced words, people have come up with the following mnemonics, for example:

• There is an -i- in the middle of both ilium and hip.
• The two letters i in ilium look like bones whereas the -e- in ileum is squiggly like an intestine.
• The intestinal obstruction called ileus affects the ileum, and both have an -e-.

• ischium
• pubis

ilium m (plural iliums)

1. ilium

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈiː.li.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈiː.li.um]

Back-formation from īlia, plural of īle.

īlium n (genitive īliī or īlī); second declension

1. alternative form of īle

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• → English: ilium
• → Italian: ilio

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

īlium n

1. genitive plural of īle

• “ilium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ilium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ilium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ilium”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “ilium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ilium”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly