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Anatomy & Physiology vocabulary · Muscles, Joints and Movement

Skeletal muscle

Meaning in anatomy & physiology, with examples

nounCommon term

In anatomy & physiology, skeletal muscle means: Muscle attached to bones that moves the skeleton and is under voluntary (conscious) control. Under the microscope its long fibers look striped, so it is also called striated muscle.

In Turkish: iskelet kası, çizgili kas

How it is used

Compared in lectures with cardiac muscle (striated but involuntary) and smooth muscle (found in the walls of organs and vessels, involuntary and not striated). Skeletal muscle makes up roughly 40 percent of body weight in adults.

Example sentences

  1. Skeletal muscle is the only type of muscle you can control voluntarily.

  2. Each skeletal muscle fiber is a single long cell with many nuclei.

Common collocations

  • skeletal muscle fiber
  • voluntary muscle
  • striated muscle
  • smooth muscle
  • cardiac muscle
  • muscleA tissue or organ made of cells that can contract (shorten) to produce movement or force. The three types are skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle.
  • contractionThe shortening or tightening of a muscle when its fibers are stimulated, producing movement or force. In the heart, contraction pushes blood out of the chambers.
  • tendonA strong cord of fibrous tissue that attaches a muscle to a bone, so that when the muscle contracts it pulls on the bone.
  • nucleusThe control center of a cell, surrounded by its own membrane. It contains the DNA, which carries the instructions for making proteins and for cell division.

More terms: Muscles, Joints and Movement

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.