carotid artery

noun

variants or carotid

: either of the two main arteries that supply blood to the head of which the left in humans arises from the arch of the aorta and the right by bifurcation of the brachiocephalic artery with each passing up the side of the neck and dividing opposite the upper border of the thyroid cartilage into an external branch supplying the face, tongue, and external parts of the head and an internal branch supplying the brain, eye, and other internal parts of the head

Examples of carotid artery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The method of hand-slaughter, Qasim explained, uses a sharp knife to sever the animal’s carotid arteries, resulting in a sudden, virtually painless death. —Zareen Syed, Chicago Tribune, 1 Apr. 2025

The tube is inserted into the carotid artery and that’s how the chemicals make their way through the entire body. —J.m. Banks, Kansas City Star, 9 Apr. 2025

The internal carotid arteries run along the front of the neck, whereas the vertebral arteries run along the back of the neck. —Alicen Nelson Md, Verywell Health, 27 Mar. 2025

And those people who had microplastics in their carotid arteries also tended to show some of those same signatures more often than the people who didn’t. —Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 14 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1667, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

carotid artery

noun

: either of the two main arteries that supply blood to the head of which the left in humans arises from the arch of the aorta and the right by bifurcation of the brachiocephalic artery with each passing along the corresponding anterolateral aspect of the neck and dividing opposite the upper border of the thyroid cartilage into an external branch supplying the face, tongue, and external parts of the head and an internal branch supplying the brain, eye, and other internal parts of the head

called also carotid

see common carotid artery, external carotid artery, internal carotid artery