Vertebra

A vertebra is one of the small bones which form the units of the spine, or backbone, of a vertebrate, an 'animal with a backbone'. (A vertebra takes the rough form of a circle, hollow in the centre for the nerves to pass through, and has a number of processes, projections which serve useful anatomical functions, on the outside.) As the word 'vertebra' is Latin 'first declension', academics and students should always form its plural as vertebrae, pronounced 'VERT-uh-bray' (IPA: /'vɜː^r tə breɪ/) or 'VERT-uh-bree' (IPA: /'vɜː^r tə briː/). (For an explanation, see -a in Latin.)