Definitions

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

  • noun An archlike anatomical structure or fold, such as the arched band of white matter beneath the corpus callosum of the brain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In topical geom., a part of a surface which, in conjunction with another similar part which inseparably accompanies it, increases the cyclosis of the surface by two.
  • noun In anat.: A median symmetrical arched formation in the brain, beneath the corpus callosum and septum lucidum, vaulting over the optic thalami and the third ventricle, and running into the floor of each lateral ventricle.
  • noun Some other arched, vaulted, or fornicated formation: as, the fornix conjunctivœ, the vault of the conjunctiva.
  • noun In conch.: The vaulted or excavated part of a shell under the umbo.
  • noun The more concavo-convex one of the shells of an inequivulve bivalve, as an oyster.
  • noun In botany, a small arching crest or appendage in the throat or tube of a corolla.

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

  • noun An arch or fold
  • noun Esp., two longitudinal bands of white nervous tissue beneath the lateral ventricles of the brain.

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

  • noun anatomy An archlike structure or fold.
  • noun anatomy Specifically, the arched bundle of fibres or axons at the base of the brain.

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

  • noun generally any arch shaped structure (but often it refers to the arched roof of an anatomical space)
  • noun an arched bundle of white fibers at the base of the brain by which the hippocampus of each hemisphere projects to the contralateral hippocampus and to the thalamus and mamillary bodies

Etymologies

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

[Latin, arch, vault; see gwher- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • HOLISTIC MEDICINE It receives afferents via inferior colliculi (inferior corpora quadrigemina) and medial geniculate bodies (part of thalamus) from COCHLEA, via olfactory tracts from OLFACTORY NEUROEPITHELIUM and via fornix [ "fornix" means arch] from MAMILLARY BODIES and probably from VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS on its posterior aspect where equilibrium sense is projected.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows supri1278 2010

  • HOLISTIC MEDICINE It receives afferents via inferior colliculi (inferior corpora quadrigemina) and medial geniculate bodies (part of thalamus) from COCHLEA, via olfactory tracts from OLFACTORY NEUROEPITHELIUM and via fornix [ "fornix" means arch] from MAMILLARY BODIES and probably from VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS on its posterior aspect where equilibrium sense is projected.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • HOLISTIC MEDICINE It receives afferents via inferior colliculi (inferior corpora quadrigemina) and medial geniculate bodies (part of thalamus) from COCHLEA, via olfactory tracts from OLFACTORY NEUROEPITHELIUM and via fornix [ "fornix" means arch] from MAMILLARY BODIES and probably from VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS on its posterior aspect where equilibrium sense is projected.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows guestf91103 2009

  • HOLISTIC MEDICINE It receives afferents via inferior colliculi (inferior corpora quadrigemina) and medial geniculate bodies (part of thalamus) from COCHLEA, via olfactory tracts from OLFACTORY NEUROEPITHELIUM and via fornix [ "fornix" means arch] from MAMILLARY BODIES and probably from VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS on its posterior aspect where equilibrium sense is projected.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • The vagina and its neighbors, including the following: vagina, hymen, urethral sponge, fornix (part of the vagina), cervix, os (part of the cervix), and pubococcygeus (PC) muscle.

    OUR BODIES, OURSELVES The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective 2005

  • In addition, the pyramidal cells send their axons into a large fiber tract (the fornix), which allows the pyramidal cells to be identified electrophysiologically by stimulating the axons in the fornix and backfiring the pyramidal cells.

    Eric R. Kandel - Autobiography 2001

  • In the female the posterior wall and fornix of the vagina, and the cervix and body of the uterus can be felt in front, while somewhat laterally the ovaries can just be reached.

    XII. Surface Anatomy and Surface Markings. 10. Surface Markings of the Perineum 1918

  • Aside from the fibers of the fornix which pass through the mammillary body to decussate and descend (as the mammillo-mesencephalic fasciculus), many fibers are said to pass into the bundle of Vicq d’Azyr, and one bundle of fibers is said to pass from the fornix to the tuber cinereum.

    IX. Neurology. 4e. Composition and Central Connections of the Spinal Nerves 1918

  • The fornix probably brings the cortical centers into relation with the reflex path that runs from the primary centers to the mammillary body and the tuber cinereum.

    IX. Neurology. 4e. Composition and Central Connections of the Spinal Nerves 1918

  • The choroid vein runs along the whole length of the choroid plexus, and receives veins from the hippocampus, the fornix, and the corpus callosum.

    VII. The Veins. 3b. 4. The Veins of the Brain 1918

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