glabella

American  

[gluh-bel-uh] / gləˈbɛl ə /

noun

Anatomy.

plural

glabellae

1. the flat area of bone between the eyebrows, used as a craniometric point.

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glabella British  

/ ɡləˈbɛlə /

noun

1. anatomy a smooth elevation of the frontal bone just above the bridge of the nose: a reference point in physical anthropology or craniometry

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Other Word Forms

• glabellar
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of glabella

First recorded in 1820–25; from New Latin, either feminine singular or neuter plural of Latin glabellus “smooth, hairless,” equivalent to glaber “without hair, smooth” + -lus, -la, -lum diminutive adjective and noun suffix

Explanation

The glabella is the part of your forehead that's between your eyebrows. It might refer to the smooth bone beneath the skin, or it might refer to the skin and soft tissue covering the bone. The word glabella comes from the Latin adjective glabellus, which means "hairless" or "smooth." Ironically, if you have a unibrow, your glabella might be hidden — by hair! If you've been at a loss to describe the phenomenon of the unibrow (also called the monobrow), you can now define it as "eyebrows joined by a growth of hair across the glabella."

Example Sentences

Glabella, the middle or frontal protuberance of the superciliary arch.

From A Manual of the Antiquity of Man by MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)