digitus

Digitus is a Latin word meaning finger or toe. In English, the term appears mainly in historical or academic contexts, where it is the source of modern words such as digit and digital. The plural form in Latin is digiti. While still encountered in classical texts and some anatomical writings, everyday usage typically uses the English term digit rather than digitus.

In human anatomy, a digit refers to any finger on the hand or toe on the foot. The hand has five digits, numbered I to V from the thumb side; the foot has five digits, with the big toe designated as I. Each digit comprises phalanges: typically three per finger or toe—proximal, middle, and distal—except for the thumb and the big toe, which usually have two. Digits connect to the palm or sole via the metacarpophalangeal or metatarsophalangeal joints and are moved by muscles and tendons that permit flexion, extension, abduction, and, in the hand, opposition.

In clinical and educational contexts, digits are central to discussions of hand and foot function, injury, and development. Beyond anatomy, digitus appears in Latin phrases and historical taxonomic literature, but in modern usage the English term digit has largely supplanted it.