: a grayish or reddish granular cell that is the fundamental functional unit of nervous tissue transmitting and receiving nerve impulses and having cytoplasmic processes which are highly differentiated frequently as multiple dendrites or usually as solitary axons which conduct impulses to and away from the cell body: nerve cellsense 1
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
AGEs stiffen tissues, damage blood vessels and impair the function of critical cells, from skin cells to neurons, Tawfik said.
DIABETES RISK LINKED TO THESE ULTRAPROCESSED FOOD COMBINATIONS
AGEs can damage collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep skin firm and elastic.—Amy McGorry, FOXNews.com, 26 May 2025 No one can peer at their respective architectures, weights (the various connection strengths among linked neurons), or activations (what numbers are being calculated given the inputs and weights while the models are running) without the company granting special access.—Jonathan L. Zittrain, The Atlantic, 21 May 2025 Specific receptors on medium spiny neurons are common targets for medications that are sometimes used to help treat OCD.—Carol Mathews, The Conversation, 13 May 2025 The outputs of the neurons in each layer become inputs to the neurons in the next layer.—Ben Brubaker, Quanta Magazine, 30 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for neuron
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from German Neuron, borrowed from Greek neûron "sinew, tendon, nerve" — more at nerve entry 1
Note:
Term introduced by the German anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer (Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz, 1836-1921) in "Ueber einige neuere Forschungen im Gebiete der Anatomie der Centralnervensystems," Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 28. Jahrgang, no. 28, July 13, 1891, p. 691: "Somit besteht ein Nervenelement (eine 'Nerveneinheit' oder 'Neuron', wie ich es zu nennen vorschlagen möchte), den genannten Forschungsergebnissen … zufolge, aus nachstehenden Stücken: a) einer Nervenzelle, b) dem Nervenfortsatze, c) dessen Collateralen und d) dem Endbäumchen." — "Therefore, in accordance with the cited research results, a nerve element (a 'nerve unit' or 'neuron,' as I would like to suggest as a name), consists of the following parts: a) a nerve cell, b) the nerve process [= axon], c) its collaterals and d) the end tree [= axon terminals]." Waldeyer apparently intended -on to be taken as a suffix, indicating a unit, rather than the Greek neuter singular inflectional ending, as he utilized Neuronen as the plural in the same article. Cf. French neurone and the English variant neurone.
: one of the cells that constitute nervous tissue, that have the property of transmitting and receiving nerve impulses, and that are composed of somewhat reddish or grayish protoplasm with a large nucleus containing a conspicuous nucleolus, irregular cytoplasmic granules, and cytoplasmic processes which are highly differentiated frequently as multiple dendrites or usually as solitary axons and which conduct impulses toward and away from the cell body: nerve cellsense 1
Share