Pterygoid

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pterygoid \Pter"y*goid\, a. [Gr. ?, ?, a wing + -oid.] (Anat.)
     (a) Like a bird's wing in form; as, a pterygoid bone.
     (b) Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the pterygoid
         bones, pterygoid processes, or the whole sphenoid bone.
         -- n. A pterygoid bone.
         [1913 Webster]


  
     {Pterygoid bone} (Anat.), a bone which corresponds to the
        inner plate of the pterygoid process of the human skull,
        but which, in all vertebrates below mammals, is not
        connected with the posterior nares, but serves to connect
        the palatine bones with the point of suspension of the
        lower jaw.
  
     {Pterygoid process} (Anat.), a process projecting downward
        from either side of the sphenoid bone, in man divided into
        two plates, an inner and an outer. The posterior nares
        pass through the space, called the pterygoid fossa,
        between the processes.
        [1913 Webster]