Adjacent Words

pineal gland definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a small endocrine gland in the brain; situated beneath the back part of the corpus callosum; secretes melatonin [syn: pineal gland, pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1712 a small usually conical appendage of the brain of all craniate vertebrates that functions primarily as an endocrine organ and that in a few reptiles has the essential structure of an eye — called also pineal, pineal body, pineal organ

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pineal Pi"ne*al, a. [L. pinea the cone of a pine, from pineus of the pine, from pinus a pine: cf. F. pin['e]ale.] Of or pertaining to a pine cone; resembling a pine cone. Pineal gland (Anat.), a glandlike body in the roof of the third ventricle of the vertebrate brain; -- called also pineal body, epiphysis, conarium. In some animals it is connected with a rudimentary eye, the so-called pineal eye, and in other animals it is supposed to be the remnant of a dorsal median eye.