flexures

Word family

• flexure
  nounC1
• flex
  verbB2
• flexion
  nounC1
• flexible
  adjectiveB1
• flexibility
  nounB2
• flection
  nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe deviation from a straight line, but they differ in scope and register. 'Bend' is the most common and general term — you can bend a pipe, a road, or your arm; it works in any context. 'Fold' implies doubling one part over another, usually on a flat surface (folding paper, folding a shirt); a fold in the body, like a skin fold, is a specific anatomical structure. 'Curve' is a smooth, continuous arc with no sharp corner, and it is neutral in register — you see a curve in a road, a graph, or a smile. 'Flexion' is the strictly medical or technical term for the action of bending a joint, not the resulting shape. 'Flexure' overlaps with all of these but is the most restricted in register: it is used chiefly in anatomy (the hepatic flexure of the colon) and geology (rock flexures from tectonic stress). Use 'bend' in everyday English; use 'flexure' when precision or formality is called for.

Common collocations

Etymology

From Latin 'flexura' (a bending or turning), which comes from the verb 'flectere' (to bend). The word entered English through French in the 16th century, first used in anatomical writing and later adopted by geology to describe bends in rock layers.