GRAY MATTER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gray matter mean? 

• GRAY MATTER (noun)
  The noun GRAY MATTER has 1 sense:

1. greyish nervous tissue containing cell bodies as well as fibers; forms the cerebral cortex consisting of unmyelinated neurons

  Familiarity information: GRAY MATTER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRAY MATTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Greyish nervous tissue containing cell bodies as well as fibers; forms the cerebral cortex consisting of unmyelinated neurons

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

gray matter; gray substance; grey matter; grey substance; substantia grisea

Hypernyms ("gray matter" is a kind of...):

nerve tissue; nervous tissue (tissue composed of neurons)

Meronyms (substance of "gray matter"):

neuropil; neuropile (the complex network of unmyelinated axones, dendrites, and glial branches that form the bulk of the central nervous system's grey matter and in which nerve cell bodies are embedded)

Holonyms ("gray matter" is a substance of...):

cerebral cortex; cerebral mantle; cortex; pallium (the layer of unmyelinated neurons (the grey matter) forming the cortex of the cerebrum)

 Context examples 

A serrated strip of gray matter under the medial border of the hippocampus and in its depths.

(Dentate Gyrus, NCI Thesaurus)

The posterior column of gray matter extending the length of the spinal cord.

(Dorsal Horn of the Spinal Cord, NCI Thesaurus)

The nerve fibers running from the cortex to the tegmentum, pontine gray matter, and the spinal cord.

(Crus Cerebri, NCI Thesaurus)

A small area of gray matter surrounding the central canal in the spinal cord.

(Gray Commissure, NCI Thesaurus)

A curved gray matter structure of the temporal lobe lying on the floor of the lateral ventricle of the brain.

(Hippocampus, NCI Thesaurus)

He's a man, every inch of him and every atom of his gray matter.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A morphologic finding that refers to the presence of ectopic gray matter in a tissue sample.

(Entrapped Gray Matter Present, NCI Thesaurus)

A very thin, curved lamina comprised of subcortical gray matter that is lateral to the putamen, medial to the insular cortex, and between the external and extreme capsules.

(Claustrum, NCI Thesaurus)

A dense intricate feltwork of interwoven fine glial processes, fibrils, synaptic terminals, axons, and dendrites interspersed among the nerve cells in the gray matter of the central nervous system.

(Neuropil, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

A curved elevation of gray matter extending the entire length of the floor of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle (Dorland, 28th ed).

(Hippocampus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)