Tissue
osteon
Subclass of:
Compact bone
Etymology:
Greek osteon = bone
Definitions related to osteon:
  • The building blocks of compact bone, the hard, tightly-packed tissue that forms the outer shell of bones.
    Harvard Dictionary of Health Terms
    Harvard Medical Publishing, 2011
  • (haversian system) A circular structural unit of bone tissue. It consists of a central hole, the Haversian canal through which blood vessels run, surrounded by concentric rings, called lamellae.
    NLM Medical Subject Headings
    U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
  • Osteon, the chief structural unit of compact (cortical) bone, consisting of concentric bone layers called lamellae, which surround a long hollow passageway, the Haversian canal (named for Clopton Havers, a 17th-century English physician). The Haversian canal contains small blood vessels responsible...
    Encyclopedia Britannica
    Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2025
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