Areola

Quick meaning: Areola is a noun meaning (anatomy) The circular, darkly pigmented area surrounding a nipple; the areola mammae.

Meaning

(anatomy) The circular, darkly pigmented area surrounding a nipple; the areola mammae.

More Meanings

1. (anatomy) Any of the small spaces throughout areolar connective tissue.
2. (botany) Any of the small spaces between fibres of the tissues of certain lichens.
3. (botany) Small patches, bearing the spines and glochids characteristic of the stems of cacti.
4. (by extension, anatomy) Any small circular area that is different from its immediate environment, such as the colored ring around the pupil of the eye (iris) or an inflamed region surrounding a pimple.

Example Sentences

The tubes or elongated spaces of which we have spoken, are not distended with any fluid, but are merely moistened in the same way as the areolas of ordinary areolar tissue.

Working with the Personal Genome Project, she has collected measurements and images of the areolas of 150 people so far. One initial finding is that the diameter of the areola seems unrelated to the number of areola glands — the small bumps in the skin surrounding the nipple.

Every pulvillus or areola is studded with from six to eight spines... From these pulvilli, also called spiniferous areola, or very close to it, burst the young bud or flower. If the latter, it is then called the floriferous areola, and the point where the epidermis bursts is of a deep pink tinge.

Word Forms

• areolas
• areolae

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include nipple, interstice, areole, mammillation, breast, lobulogenesis.

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