hair follicle

American

noun

Anatomy.

a small cavity in the epidermis and corium of the skin, from which a hair develops.

hair follicle British

noun

a narrow tubular cavity that contains the root of a hair, formed by an infolding of the epidermis and corium of the skin

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of hair follicle

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

hair follicle

“And I think everyone’s universally saying there a lot of different kinds of decisions we do not want part of our game. Toenail offsides, hair follicle arguments.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

But Tsuji says his study identified a "novel third cell type", called a hair follicle regenerative-supporting cell.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

As of right now, dermatologists don’t know the root cause of FAPD, though they believe it might show up in midlife due to a decline in estrogen, which protects against hair follicle inflammation.

From Slate ● May 23, 2026

The researchers tested how hair follicle stem cells respond to metabolic stress.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2025

They are very abundant in the hair follicle.

From Special Report on Diseases of Cattle by United States. Bureau of Animal Industry

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023