A metatarsal is one of the five long bones in the middle of the foot. They run from the cluster of small bones near the ankle toward the toes, and the toe bones sit on the far end. Dictionaries sometimes say 'from the heel to the toes', which is the useful picture — though actually the heel bone itself is not a metatarsal. The heel is one of the tarsal bones; the metatarsals are the ones just beyond them, in the arch and the ball of the foot. Footballers and dancers break them; doctors talk about a fifth-metatarsal fracture. The same word can be an adjective: a metatarsal bone, a metatarsal pad. It is a body-science word. The matching long bones in the hand are the metacarpals.