ossify
pronunciation
How to pronounce ossify in British English:
UK [ˈɒsɪfaɪ]
How to pronounce ossify in American English:
US [ˈɑsɪfaɪ]
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- Verb:
- become bony
- make rigid and set into a conventional pattern
- cause to become hard and bony
Word Origin
- ossify (v.)
- 1713, "to turn into bone," a back-formation from ossification, or else modeled on French ossifier (18c.) and formed from Latin os (genitive ossis) "bone" (see osseous) + -fy. Figurative sense is from 1858. Related: Ossified; ossifying.
Example
- 1. It is easy for the mind to ossify .
- 2. Achild 's cartilage starts to ossify at a very young age .
- 3. Without this intermediation , money would not change hands , economic growth would stall and society would ossify , as inheritance replaced entrepreneurship as the principal means of wealth transfer .