# Muscle terminology

Muscles
* Myology-The scientific study of muscles
* Tendon- A band of tough, inelastic fibrous tissue that connects a muscle with its bony attachment
* Aponeurosis- A sheetlike fibrous membrane, resembling a flattened tendon, that serves as a fascia to bind muscles together or as a means of connecting muscle to bone.
* Fascia- A sheet or band of fibrous connective tissue enveloping, separating, or binding together muscles, organs, and other soft structures of the body
* Ligament- A sheet or band of tough, fibrous tissue connecting bones or cartilages at a joint or supporting an organ
* Origin- The point of attachment of a muscle that remains relatively fixed during contraction
* Insertion- The point or mode of attachment of a skeletal muscle to the bone or other body part that it moves.
* Sarcolemma- A thin membrane enclosing a striated muscle fiber
* Sarcoplasm- The cytoplasm of a striated muscle fiber
* Skeletal muscle- A usually voluntary muscle made up of elongated, multinucleated, transversely striated muscle fibers, having principally bony attachments. Also called striated muscle.
* Smooth muscle- Muscle tissue that contracts without conscious control, having the form of thin layers or sheets made up of spindle-shaped, unstriated cells with single nuclei and found in the walls of the internal organs, such as the stomach, intestine, bladder, and blood vessels, excluding the heart
* Cardiac muscle- The muscle of the heart, consisting of anastomosing transversely striated muscle fibers formed of cells united at intercalated disks; the myocardium.
* Prime mover- muscle that actively produces a movement
* Antagonist- A muscle that counteracts the action of another muscle, the agonist.
* Synergist- an organ (as a muscle) that acts in concert with another to enhance its effect (compare with agonist)
* Azygous- unpaired; occurring singly; not one of a pair, as a vein or muscle
* Masseter- muscle of mastication; a large muscle that raises the lower jaw and assists in mastication, arises from the zygomatic arch and the zygomatic process of the temporal bone, and is inserted into the mandibular ramus and gonial angle
* Intercostal muscles- any of the short muscles that extend between the ribs filling in most of the intervals between them and serving to move the ribs in respiration
* Diaphragm- A muscular membranous partition separating the abdominal and thoracic cavities and functioning in respiration. Also called midriff.
* Linea alba- A fibrous band that runs vertically along the center of the anterior abdominal wall and receives the attachments of the oblique and transverse abdominal muscles. Also called white line.
* Mastication- chewing or grinding of food
* Motor nerve- An efferent nerve conveying an impulse that excites muscular contraction; a nerve that passes toward or to muscles or glands
* Atrophy- A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use
* Leiomyosarcoma- A malignant neoplasm derived from smooth muscle
* Myalgia- muscle pain; muscular pain or tenderness, especially when diffuse and nonspecific. Also called myodynia
* Myoma- benign neoplasm of muscular tissue
* Myosarcoma- malignant neoplasm of muscular tissue
* Myopathy- Any of various abnormal conditions or diseases of the muscular tissues, especially one involving skeletal muscle
* Tetany- An abnormal condition characterized by periodic painful muscular spasms and tremors, caused by faulty calcium metabolism and associated with diminished function of the parathyroid glands. Also called intermittent cramp, intermittent tetanus
* Extensor- A muscle that extends or straightens a limb or body part.
* Flexor- A muscle that when contracted acts to bend a joint or limb in the body.
* Gluteal group- Group of muscles located on the dorsal pelvis
* Quadriceps femoris group- A large extensor muscle of the front of the thigh divided above into four parts which include the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis, and which unite in a single tendon to enclose the patella as a sesamoid bone at the knee and insert as the patellar ligament into the tuberosity of the tibia called; also quadriceps femoris, quadriceps muscle
* Semi group- group of 43 muscles sometimes called the hamstrings; flexor of distal hind limb; the large tendon in the back of the hind tarsal joint of the quadruped
* Pectoral group- group of muscles of the chest; also called musculus pectoralis