Akademik

Sphenoid

A bone at the base of the skull that is of a most irregular shape. The sphenoid bone consists of a central portion, (the body of the sphenoid) and six processes: two greater wings, two lesser wings and two pterygoid processes. The sphenoid bone articulates (joins) with a number of other bones (the occipital, frontal, ethmoid, and vomer, and with the paired temporal, parietal, zygomatic, palatine and sphenoidal concha bones).

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1. SYN: sphenoidal. 2. SYN: s. (bone). [G. sphenoeides, fr. sphen, wedge, + eidos, resemblance]

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sphe·noid 'sfē-.nȯid or sphe·noi·dal sfē-'nȯid-əl adj of, relating to, or being a compound bone of the base of the cranium of various vertebrates formed by the fusion of several bony elements with the basisphenoid and in humans consisting of a median body from whose sides extend a pair of broad curved winglike expansions in front of which is another pair of much smaller triangular lateral processes while ventrally two large deeply cleft processes extend downward see GREATER WING, LESSER WING

sphenoid n a sphenoid bone

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sphe·noid (sfeґnoid) [sphen- + -oid] 1. wedge-shaped; see os sphenoidale. 2. sphenoidal.

Medical dictionary. 2011.