How to express the shape of a leg of an ant? Abrupt change of direction

adjectivessingle-word-requests

How do I describe the shape of a leg of an ant?

A leg of an ant is bent, but I feel 'bent' is suitable for gradual change of direction.

Is there an adjective for 'abrupt change of direction' which can be applied to describe 'a leg of an ant' or 'the English uppercase letter L'?

If there is, can you express the shape of a leg of an ant using that term ?

I found that 'broken' is a possible word.

But 'the leg of the ant is broken' is really unwanted result.

Best Answer

The scientific word for that seems to be geniculate:

bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee
(Merriam-Webster)

A five-cent word for it is elbowed.

For example:

Insect antennae may be threadlike (filiform), beadlike (moniliform), swollen at the tip (clubbed), sawlike (serrate), comblike (pectinate), featherlike (plumose), or elbowed (geniculate).
Gary A. Dunn, Insects of the Great Lakes Region (1996) (source)

Another possibility is angled (as in angled bracket, '< … >'), but this word seems to be used more frequently to describe the edge of something (leaves..angled or lobed toothed; the emperor has six jewels in the angled border of his dress [OED]) or the shape of a surface (an angled ramp makes skateboarding more fun [vocabulary.com]).

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