artery

noun

ar·tery ˈär-tə-rē

ˈär-trē

plural arteries

Synonyms of artery next

: any of the tubular branching muscular- and elastic-walled vessels that carry blood from the heart through the body

: a channel (such as a river or highway) of transportation or communication

especially : the main channel in a branching system

Example Sentences

He favors local side roads over major arteries. there's an accident on the main artery into town, so I'll be late

Recent Examples on the Web One of the last things a motorist might expect to see alongside Babcock Road, a major Northwest Side traffic artery, is an infrastructure contractor’s electronic sign bearing a vulgar message about someone’s genitalia. —

Riley Carroll, San Antonio Express-News, 14 Mar. 2023 Dozens of Caltrans snowplow operators traverse this section of I-80, the vital artery that shuttles eager Bay Area skiers to Tahoe, Nevada and beyond. —

St. John Barned-smith, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2023 In January, my husband, Chuck, underwent roughly four hours of open-heart surgery to fix a leaky valve and clogged artery. —

Beth Decarbo, WSJ, 11 Mar. 2023 Some scientists have raised questions about the design and conclusion of a trial in which Budoff found the fish oil drug Vascepa worked to reduce artery plaque. —

Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2023 Bill Heeber has taken over checking in on their mom. Dr. Ketan Bulsara, chief of neurosurgery at UConn Health, repaired the first broken blood vessel, her vertebrobasilar artery, by strengthening it with stents. —

Ed Stannard, Hartford Courant, 15 Feb. 2023 If fibroids are the cause of your heavy bleeding, your healthcare provider may recommend uterine artery embolization. —

Amanda Macmillan, Health, 11 Feb. 2023 The twister formed near the major southern Houston traffic artery and proceeded to blast eastward, throwing cars around and ripping street posts askew. —

Dan Carson, Chron, 24 Jan. 2023 An additional 10,000 Wisconsinites are hospitalized following a heart attack, caused by a clogged artery, annually, according to the state Department of Health Services. —

Jessica Van Egeren, Journal Sentinel, 19 Jan. 2023 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'artery.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English arterie, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French arteire, arterie, borrowed from Latin artēria "trachea, bronchial tubes (in plural artēriae), artery," borrowed from Greek artēría, from ar- (contracted from *awer-), base of aeírein "to join, attach, harness" (of uncertain origin) + -tēr, agentive suffix + -ia -ia entry 1 — more at aorta

Note: Compare, without the second suffix, Greek artḗr "something by which a burden is carried" (Septuagint). The semantic relation between the verb aeírein and the sense "trachea" parallels that between the verb and the derivative aortḗ "aorta, bronchial tubes" (see aorta). The extension of the meaning from "trachea" to "artery" is presumably because the arteries were believed to carry air to the extremities of the body as well as blood.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of artery was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century