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forceps.

An instrument used in surgery or medical procedures for grasping and holding objects, similar to tongs or pincers.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɔːsɛps/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɔːsəps/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfoɹsɛps/General-American/ˈfɔ(ː)ɹsɛps/
  1. An instrument used in surgery or medical procedures for grasping and holding objects, similar to tongs or pincers.

  2. A pair of appendages on the abdomen of some insects, such as earwigs, resembling the medical instrument.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-mós Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰormós Proto-Italic *xʷormos Proto-Italic *formos substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Italic *kapjō Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Italic *-s Proto-Italic *-kap-s Proto-Italic *formokaps? Latin forcepslbor. English forceps Learned borrowing from Latin forceps.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.