internal ear

American  

noun

1. the inner portion of the ear, involved in hearing and balance, consisting of a bony labyrinth that is composed of a vestibule, semicircular canals, and a cochlea and that encloses a membranous labyrinth.

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internal ear British  

noun

1. Also called: inner ear.   labyrinth.  the part of the ear that consists of the cochlea, vestibule, and semicircular canals

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Example Sentences

This design feature is inspired by the multiple synaptic connections between hair cells in the internal ear and neurons, providing a backup should one pathway fail.

From Science Daily • Jan. 13, 2024

The reader has an internal ear: so must the writer.

From The Guardian • Oct. 7, 2017

Ama was a wine vessel used in the early Christian Church, also a medical term for "an enlargement of the semicircular canal of the internal ear."

From Time Magazine Archive

The sacs of the internal ear, known as the utricle and saccule, receive the impulses of the base of the stapes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 "Hearing" to "Helmond" by Various

Creatures which live in water do not seem to use hearing much, and the sound-waves in fishes are simply conveyed through the walls of the head to the internal ear without any definite mechanism.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 by Various