GREY MATTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grey matter mean? 

• GREY MATTER (noun)
  The noun GREY 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: GREY MATTER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREY 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 ("grey matter" is a kind of...):

nerve tissue; nervous tissue (tissue composed of neurons)

Meronyms (substance of "grey 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 ("grey 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 

In particular, the researchers looked at the thickness of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain – our so-called ‘grey matter’ – and compared it to each child’s body mass index (BMI).

(Childhood obesity linked to structural differences in key brain regions, University of Cambridge)

An area of grey matter in the thoracic region of the spinal cord forming a laterally projecting triangle from the center of either side of the spinal cord.

(Lateral Horn of the Spinal Cord, NCI Thesaurus)

A funnel-shaped tube of grey matter and axons that connects the hypothalamus to the posterior pituitary.

(Brain Infundibulum, NCI Thesaurus)

In the brain, grey matter is comprised primarily of neuron cell bodies, while white matter is made up of bundles of axons, which are the projections neurons send out to connect with one another.

(Bioengineers create functional 3D brain-like tissue, NIH)

The result was a distinct white matter region (containing mostly cellular projections, the axons) formed in the center of the donut that was separate from the surrounding grey matter (where the cell bodies were concentrated).

(Bioengineers create functional 3D brain-like tissue, NIH)