Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A compact or close-knit body of people.
  • noun A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II of Macedon and used by Alexander the Great.
  • noun Anatomy A bone of a finger or toe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In entomology, any one of the joints of the tarsus.
  • noun In Gr. antiquity, in general, the whole of the heavy-armed infantry of an army; particularly, a single grand division of that class of troops when formed in ranks and files close and deep, with their shields joined and long spears overlapping one another so as to present a firm and serried front to a foe.
  • noun Any body of troops or men formed in close array, or any combination of people distinguished for firmness and solidity of union.
  • noun In Fourier's plan for the reorganization of society, a group of persons, numbering about 1, 800, living together and holding their property in common. See Fourierism.
  • noun In anatomy and zoology:
  • noun A row or series of bones in the fingers or toes.
  • noun One of the bones of the fingers or toes; a digital internode, succeeding the metacarpal or metatarsal bones, collectively constituting the skeleton of the third and distal segment of the hand or foot: so called from their regular disposition in several rows.
  • noun One of the fiddle-shaped cells of the lamina reticularis of the Cortian organ. Also called Deiters's phalanges.
  • noun In zoology, a group or series of animals, of indeterminate classificatory value; one of several groups which may be interposed above genera and below classes or orders.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) A body of heavy-armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep. There were several different arrangements, the phalanx varying in depth from four to twenty-five or more ranks of men.
  • noun Any body of troops or men formed in close array, or any combination of people distinguished for firmness and solidity of a union.
  • noun A Fourierite community; a phalanstery.
  • noun (Anat.) One of the digital bones of the hand or foot, beyond the metacarpus or metatarsus; an internode.
  • noun (Bot.) A group or bundle of stamens, as in polyadelphous flowers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
  • noun anatomy One of the bones of the finger or toe.
  • noun historical An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
  • noun A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a body of troops in close array
  • noun any of the bones of the fingers or toes
  • noun any closely ranked crowd of people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin phalanx, phalang-, from Greek.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phalanks, "battle order, array").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Mollusque? A monovocalic for you?

    October 9, 2008

  • Only two vowels, but phalangar works. Thanks, c_b!

    October 9, 2008