Definitions

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

  • adjective Relating to or forming the wall of a body part, organ, or cavity.
  • adjective Of or relating to either of the parietal bones.
  • adjective Botany Borne on the inside of the ovary wall. Used of the ovules or placentas in flowering plants.
  • adjective Dwelling within or having authority within the walls or buildings of a college.
  • noun A parietal part, such as a wall or bone.
  • noun The rules governing the visiting privileges of members of the opposite sex in college or university dormitories.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a wall.
  • Pertaining to buildings or the care of them; resident within the walls or buildings of a university or college, or having charge over the buildings and the conduct of the students, etc., of a university or college.
  • In anatomy and zoology, specifically, pertaining to the walls of a cavity of the body, in distinction from its contents: opposed to visceral: as, parietal and visceral reflections of the peritoneum.
  • In botany, pertaining to or arising from a wall: usually applied to ovules when they proceed from or are borne on the walls or sides of the ovary.
  • Superior, the superior parietal lobule.
  • Ascending, the posterior central convolution; the convolution lying immediately back of the fissure of Rolando. See cut under cerebral.
  • In herpetology, an unossified space in the roof of the skull of some reptiles, especially in Lacertilia, along the sagittal or coronal suture.
  • Superior, that convolution of the parietal lobe which lies above the intraparietal sulcus and behind the upper part of the posterior central convolution.
  • noun In anatomy, one of a pair of bones of the cranium, right and left, developed in membrane, forming a part of the top and sides of the brain-box, between the occipital and the frontal bone.
  • noun Specifically, in fishes, a superior lateral bone of the cranium. In some forms it articulates with its fellow of the opposite side in front of the supraoccipital; in others it lies on one side of the latter bone remote from its fellow. Posteriorly it overlies the epiotic; at its outer edge it articulates with the pterotic.
  • noun Same as parietal shield.

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

  • noun (Anat.) One of the parietal bones.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the special scales, or plates, covering the back of the head in certain reptiles and fishes.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a wall; hence, pertaining to buildings or the care of them.
  • adjective Resident within the walls or buildings of a college.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the parietes.
  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the parietal bones, which form the upper and middle part of the cranium, between the frontals and occipitals.
  • adjective (Bot.) Attached to the main wall of the ovary, and not to the axis; -- said of a placenta.

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

  • adjective Of or relating to the wall of a body part, organ or cavity.
  • adjective Of or relating to the parietal bones
  • adjective Of or relating to college living and, especially, its regulation.
  • noun anatomy Either of the two parietal bones, on the top and side of the skull.

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

  • adjective of or relating to or associated with the parietal bones in the cranium

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Late Latin parietālis, of a wall, from Latin pariēs, pariet-, wall.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin parietālis, from pariēs ("wall").

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Examples

  • The tumor is located in this light purple area known as the parietal lobe.

    CNN Transcript Jun 2, 2008 2008

  • For example, there is a category of particular undecideds that happen in the section of this area of their brain called the parietal lobe, the parietal cortex where you gather evidence.

    CNN Transcript Oct 29, 2008 2008

  • This sort of light purple area, that's known as the parietal lobe.

    CNN Transcript Jun 2, 2008 2008

  • This is the area of the brain called the parietal lobe where evidence is typically gathered like acorns just gather, gather, gather.

    CNN Transcript Oct 29, 2008 2008

  • Let me give you a quick idea here, if this image comes up, specifically about what is known as the parietal lobe.

    CNN Transcript May 20, 2008 2008

  • This light purple area over here, Don, that's known as the parietal lobe.

    CNN Transcript Jun 2, 2008 2008

  • You will start to store memories in a different place, in the frontal area of the brain here and an area called the parietal area back here.

    CNN Transcript Nov 9, 2007 2007

  • * In order to simplify neurological terminology, I will also refer to the parietal lobes as the orientation area and the occipital lobes as the visual processing area.

    Born to Believe Andrew Newberg 2006

  • * In order to simplify neurological terminology, I will also refer to the parietal lobes as the orientation area and the occipital lobes as the visual processing area.

    Born to Believe Andrew Newberg 2006

  • Here and there are seen other special cells called parietal cells, P, which are supposed to produce the acid of the gastric juice.

    A Practical Physiology Albert F. Blaisdell

  • At Notre Dame, “parietals,” or regulations governing opposite-sex guests in dorms, ban co-mingling before 9 am and after midnight on weekdays, and after 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays.

    We're just starting to grasp how campus rape steals women's careers before they start The A.V. Club 2022

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