Can the word phalanx also be used to describe the finger bone plus the soft parts around the bone? I was talking in an SE chatroom about fingers, and not being a native English speaker, I had to look up the word used for the part of a finger from the tip to the closest knuckle. I came across the word "phalanges", but the Wikipedia article specifically refered to this as phalanx bones, i.e. just the bone and not everything around it. Can this term also be used to describe the bone plus all of the softer parts around it like the muscles, blood vessels, skin and nail? If not, is there a more commonly accepted biological term for the bone plus the soft tissue around it?

It's a great question, and in my humble opinion, the answer is:

Phalanx (plural: phalanges), (also Cambridge and MedicineNet) is the term for one of the **bones** (only) in the fingers or toes and not for all the "meat" around it. The Google images search for phalanges is quite convincing.

Someone on < might know a word for the whole bone + "meat" part of the finger.