lumbar
/ˈlʌm.bɑɹ/adjective, noun
lumbar is an adjective meaning “Related to the lower back or loin, specifically the five vertebrae between the rib cage and the pelvis” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled L-U-M-B-A-R and has 2 syllables, and it appears 1.2 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does lumbar mean?
adjective
- 1
Related to the lower back or loin, specifically the five vertebrae between the rib cage and the pelvis.
noun
- 1
informalThe lumbar region.
- 2
A lumbar vertebra.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce lumbar?
- UK /ˈlʌm.bɑː/
- US /ˈlʌm.bɑɹ/
- US /ˈlʌm.bɚ/
Lumbar has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lumbar_2.ogg, En-us-lumbar_1.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of lumbar
- more lumbar comparative
- most lumbar superlative
- lumbars plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is lumbar?
Lumbar appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 25,751st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with lumbar
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Lumbar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense related to the lower back or loin:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lumbar come from?
From Latin lumbāris, from lumbus (“loin”) + -āris. See loin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).