Terminologia Anatomica

The Terminologia Anatomica is the international standard for human anatomical nomenclature, recognizing approximately 7,500 terms for macroscopic structures. It was developed to standardize the vast and often confusing array of names used for body parts. The need for such a standard arose because, by the late 19th century, medical knowledge had expanded significantly, leading to thousands of new anatomical terms, with some structures having numerous synonyms.

The Terminologia Anatomica evolved from earlier efforts, such as the Basle Nomina Anatomica (1895) and the Paris Nomina Anatomica (1955). It is produced by international anatomical organizations and was made available online in 2011. Anatomy itself is the biological science focused on identifying and describing the body structures of living things, with gross anatomy studying visible structures and microscopic anatomy examining those visible only under a microscope.1