fetal position

noun

: a position (as of a sleeping person) in which the body lies curled up on one side with the arms and legs drawn up and the head bowed forward and which is assumed in some forms of psychic regression

Examples of fetal position in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the ensuing hours, Hernandez asked several times to go home, said the officers were trying to trick him, sobbed, clutched at his stomach, lay on the floor in a fetal position, had a fentanyl patch placed on his chest to treat his chronic pain, and mentioned his mental illness diagnoses. —Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 28 July 2025

Factors such as genetics, fetal position, pelvic structure and medical conditions often play a more significant role in determining labor duration and complications. —Dan Perry, Newsweek, 2 Mar. 2025

Now sit tall, with your legs crossed, or remain curled up in the fetal position—sorry, the unborn person position, as I’m now legally required to call it. —Jena Friedman, New Yorker, 25 June 2025

How about falling into a fetal position and playing dead? —Alann B. Steen, Outdoor Life, 21 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fetal position

• academician
• cycloaddition
• decomposition
• diagnostician
• disinhibition
• indisposition
• interposition
• juxtaposition
• mathematician
• metacognition
• metaphysician
• neurotransmission

Medical Definition

fetal position

noun

: a position (as of a sleeping person) in which the body lies curled up on one side with the arms and legs drawn up toward the chest and the head is bowed forward and which is assumed in some forms of psychological regression