| / English Dictionary |
EFFERENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A nerve that conveys impulses toward or to muscles or glands
Synonyms:
efferent; efferent nerve; motor nerve
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("efferent" is a kind of...):
nerve; nervus (any bundle of nerve fibers running to various organs and tissues of the body)
Meronyms (parts of "efferent"):
efferent neuron; motoneuron; motor nerve fiber; motor neuron (a neuron conducting impulses outwards from the brain or spinal cord)
efferent fiber; motor fiber (a nerve fiber that carries impulses toward the muscles or glands)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "efferent"):
anterior horn; anterior root; ventral horn; ventral root (one of the two roots of a spinal nerve that passes ventrally from the spinal cord and that consists of motor fibers)
corticospinal tract; pyramidal motor system; pyramidal tract (any of the important motor nerves on each side of the central nervous system that run from the sensorimotor areas of the cortex through the brainstem to motor neurons of the cranial nerve nuclei and the ventral root of the spinal cord)
Derivation:
efferent (of nerves and nerve impulses; conveying information away from the CNS)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of nerves and nerve impulses; conveying information away from the CNS
Example:
efferent nerves and impulses
Synonyms:
efferent; motorial
Classified under:
Similar:
centrifugal; motor (conveying information to the muscles from the CNS)
corticifugal; corticoefferent; corticofugal (of a nerve fiber passing outward from the cerebral cortex)
neuromotor (relating to a nerve fiber or impulse passing toward motor effectors)
Domain category:
physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)
Antonym:
afferent (of nerves and nerve impulses; conveying sensory information from the sense organs to the CNS)
Derivation:
efferent (a nerve that conveys impulses toward or to muscles or glands)
Context examples:
A convoluted tube connecting the efferent ductules of the testicle to the vas deferens.
(Duct of the Epididymis, NCI Thesaurus)
Together they provide efferent innervation to the muscles of facial expression and to the lacrimal and salivary glands, and convey afferent information for taste from the anterior two-thirds of the tongue and for touch from the external ear.
(Facial Nerve, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
A very slender, longitudinal column of motor neurons in the ventrolateral medulla oblongata; its efferent fibres leave with the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerve and innervate the striated muscle fibres of the pharynx (including the musculus levator veli palatini) and the vocal cord muscles of the larynx.
(Nucleus Ambiguus, NCI Thesaurus)
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