nasal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of, in, or relating to the nose.
2. adj. Linguistics Articulated by lowering the soft palate so that air resonates in the nasal cavities and passes out the nose, as in the pronunciation of the consonants (m), (n), and (ng) or the nasalized vowel of French bon.
3. adj. Characterized by or resembling a resonant sound produced through the nose: a nasal whine.
4. n. Linguistics A nasal consonant.
5. n. A nasal part or bone, forming part of the bridge of the nose.
6. n. The nosepiece of a helmet.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of or pertaining to the nose or nostrils; narial; rhinal.
2. Uttered with resonance in the nose, or with admission of the expelled air into the nasal passages, by relaxation or dropping of the palatal veil that shuts them off from the pharynx. A nasal sound uttered with complete closure of the mouth-organs is a nasal stop, or check, or mute, or oftenest called a nasal merely: such in English are n, m, ng, uttered respectively in the mouth-positions of d, b, g. There are apt to be in any language as many such as there are positions of mute-closure; thus, in Sanskrit there are five. A nasal uttered in a vowel-position of the mouth-organs is a nasal vowel: such are the French an, on, in, un, the Portuguese ão, etc. Nasal semivowels are also possible. And sometimes the whole utterance is rendered more or less nasal (the ‘nasal twang’) by habitual relaxation of the velar closure.
3. In entomology, pertaining to the nasus or clypeus.
4. In ornithology, the depressions upon the bill of a bird in which the external nostrils open. These are usually wellmarked fossæ at or near the base of the bill, on either side of the culmen, naked or filled in with feathers, or arched over by an operculum or nasal scale; their characters are often of zoological importance. See cuts and diagram under bill.
5. frontal, a process of the frontal bone in part supporting the two nasal bones;
6. anterior, a median process of each maxillary bone, together forming one spine which projects at the base of the outer nostrils or anterior nares;
7. posterior, a corresponding median process of the conjoined palate-bones in the floor of the posterior nares, at the root of the uvula. The last two processes are sometimes called prenasal and postnasal. The anterior process has some ethnological significance, being best developed in the higher races of men, and is also one of several datum-points in craniometry.
8. n. A part of a helmet which protects the nose and adjacent parts of the face. It was made in various forms. Also called nose-piece. See also cut-under helmet.
9. n. A sound uttered through or partly through the nose: especially, a nasal mute or stop, as m, n, ng.
10. n. In anatomy, one of the nasal bones. In the higher vertebrates they are a pair of bones of the surface of the skull, in relation with the frontal, lacrymal, or maxillary bones, covering in more or less of the nasal cavity. They are very variable in shape in different animals, less so in position and relations: in man they form the bridge of the nose. In the osseous fishes different bones have been identified as representatives of the nasals. According to Cuvier, they are a pair of separated small tubiform bones in front of the frontals, called by others turbinals. According to Owen, they are represented by an unpaired projecting bone in front of the frontals, more generally considered to be the ethmoid. The nasals were regarded by Owen as forming the neural spine of the foremost, rhinencephalic, or nasal vertebra. See cuts under craniofacial. Crotalus, Lepidosiren, Anura., and holorhinal.
11. n. In herpetology, a nasal plate or shield.

Wiktionary

1. adj. anatomy Of or pertaining to the nose.
2. adj. phonetics Having a quality imparted by means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng; characterized by resonance in the nasal passage; as, a nasal vowel; a nasal utterance.
3. n. An elementary sound which is uttered through the nose, or through both the nose and the mouth simultaneously, such asm and n.
4. n. medicine, archaic A medicine that operates through the nose; an errhine.
5. n. phonetics A nasal vowel or consonant.
6. n. now historical Part of a helmet projecting to protect the nose; a nose guard.
7. n. anatomy One of the nasal bones.
8. n. zoology A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the nose.
2. adj. (Phon.) Having a quality imparted by means of the nose; and specifically, made by lowering the soft palate, in some cases with closure of the oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 20, 208); characterized by resonance in the nasal passage
3. n. An elementary sound which is uttered through the nose, or through both the nose and the mouth simultaneously.
4. n. (Med.), Archaic A medicine that operates through the nose; an errhine.
5. n. (Anc. Armor) Part of a helmet projecting to protect the nose; a nose guard.
6. n. (Anat.) One of the nasal bones.
7. n. (Zoöl.) A plate, or scale, on the nose of a fish, etc.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an elongated rectangular bone that forms the bridge of the nose
2. adj. sounding as if the nose were pinched
3. adj. of or in or relating to the nose
4. n. a consonant produced through the nose with the mouth closed