Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having the form of a pine cone.
  • adjective Of or relating to the pineal gland.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a pine-cone, or resembling it in shape.
  • Pertaining to the pineal body.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a pine cone; resembling a pine cone.
  • adjective (Anat.) a glandlike body in the roof of the third ventricle of the vertebrate brain; -- called also pineal body, epiphysis, conarium. In some animals it is connected with a rudimentary eye, the so-called pineal eye, and in other animals it is supposed to be the remnant of a dorsal median eye.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective In the shape of a pine cone.
  • adjective Pertaining to the pineal gland.
  • noun The pineal gland.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having the form of a pine cone
  • adjective relating to the pineal body

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French pinéal, from Latin pīnea, pine cone, from feminine of pīneus, of pine, from pīnus, pine tree; see peiə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French pinéal, from Middle French, from Latin pīnea ("pine cone, pine nut"), from pīneus ("of the pine")

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Examples

  • By Plato the rational soul is placed in the brain, whilst Descartes relegates it to the minute portion of it called the pineal gland.

    Later Articles and Reviews W.B. Yeats 2000

  • As a result, Yale had a kind of head start in pineal research.

    LSD and the Third Eye 1966

  • When the sun sets and darkness sweeps over, a pea-sized structure located deep between the hemispheres of your brain called the pineal gland begins to secrete this hormone, preparing you for bed.

    Dr. Michael J. Breus: Melatonin: Miracle or Mistake? 2009

  • Here goes: We all have a third eye called the pineal gland located in the middle of the brain, which secretes melatonin.

    You Being Beautiful Michael F. Roizen 2008

  • Here goes: We all have a third eye called the pineal gland located in the middle of the brain, which secretes melatonin.

    You Being Beautiful Michael F. Roizen 2008

  • For he maintained, that the soul or mind is specially united to a particular part of the brain, namely, to that part called the pineal gland, by the aid of which the mind is enabled to feel all the movements which are set going in the body, and also external objects, and which the mind by

    The Ethics 2007

  • They were especially intent upon increasing the secretions of what we now call the pineal gland, and referred to these as the nectar of the moon—an appropriate nomenclature, since the primary hormone secreted by the pineal is melatonin, the hormone that helps us sleep.

    Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001

  • They were especially intent upon increasing the secretions of what we now call the pineal gland, and referred to these as the nectar of the moon—an appropriate nomenclature, since the primary hormone secreted by the pineal is melatonin, the hormone that helps us sleep.

    Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001

  • Because it vaguely resembles a pinecone in shape it is called the pineal gland (pin'ee-ul).

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

  • In the brain of man and many of the lower vertebrates, hanging by two peduncles, or strands of nerve fibre, from the thalami, or beds of the optic nerve, is a small rounded or heart-shaped body of about the size of a pea, known as the pineal gland.

    Man And His Ancestor A Study In Evolution Charles Morris 1877

Comments

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  • I can't see the word pineal without thinking of Descartes. This was under the examples for pineal gland:

    The pineal entered one period of glory in the early 17th century, when the influential French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes, under the impression that the pineal gland was found only in humans and never in the lower animals, maintained that this small scrap of tissue was the seat of the human soul.

    The Human Brain

    July 7, 2010