artery

noun

ar·​tery ˈär-tə-rē How to pronounce artery (audio)
ˈär-trē
plural arteries
1
: any of the tubular branching muscular- and elastic-walled vessels that carry blood from the heart through the body
2
: a channel (such as a river or highway) of transportation or communication
especially : the main channel in a branching system

Examples of artery in a Sentence

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Structural heart diseases — including: Coronary artery disease (yes, even in the young), where arteries get blocked. Jesse Pines, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2025 Safed Street, once the camp’s main commercial and industrial artery, lined with dozens of workshops and blacksmiths, is littered with rubble. Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar. 2025 Our focus was to follow the one ancient aqueduct that still functions today, the Aqua Virgo (as it was named in Latin, or Acqua Vergine in Italian), a 13-mile artery inaugurated by Marcus Agrippa, the brilliant general and son-in-law of Emperor Augustus, in 19 B.C. Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Mar. 2025 Aneurysms—or bubbles in the wall of an artery—can be treated by threading a probe from an artery in the groin or the wrist up to the brain and closing off the affected area with a coil or a stent. Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 20 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for artery

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

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Cite this Entry

“Artery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artery. Accessed 5 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

artery

noun
ar·​tery ˈärt-ə-rē How to pronounce artery (audio)
plural arteries
1
: one of the tube-shaped branching muscular-walled and elastic-walled vessels that carry blood from the heart to all parts of the body
2
: a channel (as a river or highway) of transportation or communication
especially : the main channel in a branching system

Medical Definition

artery

noun
ar·​tery ˈärt-ə-rē How to pronounce artery (audio)
plural arteries
: any of the tubular branching muscular- and elastic-walled vessels that carry blood from the heart through the body

More from Merriam-Webster on artery

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