1. A malignant tumor that begins growing in connective tissue; such as, muscle, bone, fat, or cartilage.

Sarcomas may occur in any part of the body, and are typically fast-growing and quick to spread.

2. Etymology: from 1657, "fleshy excrescence", Medical Latin, from Greek sarkoma "fleshy substance" (Galen), from sarkoun, "to produce flesh, to grow fleshy"; from sarx, sarkos, "flesh".

The meaning "harmful tumor of the connective tissue" was first recorded in 1804.

The fleshy portion of an anthozoan (marine organisms; such as, the corals and sea anemones, that have radial segments and grow singly or in colonies) as opposed to the skeletal portion of an animal's body.