Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The usually long process of a nerve fiber that generally conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In anatomy, the body-axis; the mesal, longitudinal, skeletal axis of the body, represented in Branchiostoma and embryos by a membranogelatinous notochord, and in most adult vertebrates by the cartilaginous or osseous centra of the vertebræ and the base of the skull. Wilder, N. Y. Med. Jour., Aug. 2, 1884, p. 113. Also called axis.
- n. The efferent or axis-cylinder process of a nerve-cell. Also spelled axone.
Wiktionary
- n. A nerve fibre which is a long slender projection of a nerve cell, and which conducts nerve impulses away from the body of the cell to a synapse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. long nerve fiber that conducts away from the cell body of the neuron
Etymologies
- Greek axōn, axis.
Examples
“A single large element extending outward from the other end of the cell body is called the axon d.”
“(D-I) The diaphragms of wild-type (D-F) and meltrin β − / − (G-I) mice at E18. 5 were stained with an anti-synaptophysin antibody (D and G) to label axon terminals and with BTX (E and H) to label acetylcholine receptors (AChRs).”
“Located at the end of the axon is a spherical protuberance called the end bulb e.”
“The central thread in the axon is the axis cylinder.”
“In neurons, there is one projection called axon, it is much longer than the others, and it carries away the information from the cell body.”
“The axon is a long, tubular fiber that transmits the action potentials from a soma to the dendrites or to an effector organ.”
“The cells are somewhat flask-shaped; the rounded internal surface of each resting on the stratum opticum, and sending off an axon which is prolonged into it.”
X. The Organs of the Senses and the Common Integument. 1c. 1. The Tunics of the Eye
“Some 20 microns in diameter and reaching as long as a meter, the axon is the extension of the cell that carries the nerve’s message as a bioelectrical signal, known as an action potential, to the target organ.”
“The word "axon" comes from "axis," in fact, with the "on** suffix substituted because of the presence of that suffix in the word" neuron. ”
The Human Brain
“Depending on that input, it “decides” whether to send an action potential of its own to other neurons via its axon.”
Lists
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chained_bear "... a sense of danger communicates itself among people in a confined setting: hospital emergency room, surgical suite, train car, ship; urgency flashes from one person to the next without speech, like the impulse down a neuron's axon to the dendrites of another."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 804 Feb 3, 2010