THYMUS

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected form: thymi

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A ductless glandular organ at the base of the neck that produces lymphocytes and aids in producing immunity; atrophies with age

Synonyms:

thymus; thymus gland

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("thymus" is a kind of...):

ductless gland; endocrine; endocrine gland (any of the glands of the endocrine system that secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream)

Holonyms ("thymus" is a part of...):

immune system (a system (including the thymus and bone marrow and lymphoid tissues) that protects the body from foreign substances and pathogenic organisms by producing the immune response)

cervix; neck (the part of an organism (human or animal) that connects the head to the rest of the body)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Large genus of Old World mints: thyme

Synonyms:

genus Thymus; Thymus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("Thymus" is a kind of...):

asterid dicot genus (genus of more or less advanced dicotyledonous herbs and some trees and shrubs)

Meronyms (members of "Thymus"):

thyme (any of various mints of the genus Thymus)

Holonyms ("Thymus" is a member of...):

family Labiatae; family Lamiaceae; Labiatae; Lamiaceae; mint family (a large family of aromatic herbs and shrubs having flowers resembling the lips of a mouth and four-lobed ovaries yielding four one-seeded nutlets and including mint; thyme; sage; rosemary)

Credits

Context examples:

A small spherical body composed of keratinized squamous epithelial cells arranged in a concentric pattern in the medullary portion of the thymus.

(Hassall's Corpuscle, NCI Thesaurus)

A mature T-lymphocyte that has differentiated in the bone marrow and undergone central tolerance selection in the thymus but has not interacted with its cognate antigen.

(Naive T-Lymphocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

Sometimes surgery to take out the thymus gland helps.

(Myasthenia Gravis, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

The major endocrine glands are the pituitary, pineal, thymus, thyroid, adrenal glands, and pancreas.

(Hormones, NIH)

Mitoclomine alkylates DNA and appears to concentrate primarily in the spleen and thymus where it causes lymphocyte depletion.

(Mitoclomine, NCI Thesaurus)

A partially purified preparation isolated from the thymus and containing several peptides.

(Human Thymosin-Fraction 5, NCI Thesaurus)

Expressed in thymus and testis and encoded by human DLEU2 Gene, DLEU2 Protein is an 84-amino acid 10-kD putative tumor suppressor protein.

(DLEU2 Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

The area between the lungs; it contains the thymus, some lymph nodes, and vessels and branches of the internal thoracic artery.

(Anterior mediastinum, NCI Thesaurus)

Abnormal growth of the cells of the tissues contained within the mediastinum (e.g., thymus) without evidence of malignancy.

(Benign Mediastinal Neoplasm, NCI Thesaurus)

A lymph node located in the superior mediastinum that collects lymph from the thymus, the pericardium, and the right side of the heart.