nerve cord

American  

noun

1. a single hollow tract of nervous tissue that constitutes the central nervous system of chordates and develops into the spinal cord and brain in vertebrates.

2. a solid double strand of nerve fibers along the length of the body in elongate invertebrates, as earthworms and insects, connecting with a pair of nerve ganglia at each body segment.

---

Etymology

Origin of nerve cord

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

The finished connectome shows how each neuron connects with other neurons in the brain and nerve cord at the level of individual synapses.

From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026

The new map of neural connections, known as a connectome, extends a previously published fruit fly brain connectome by adding the fly's spinal cord equivalent, called the nerve cord.

From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026

At the same time, Lee and his colleagues were building a connectome of the fruit fly nerve cord, which controls the legs, wings, and other appendages while also processing sensory information.

From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026

The nervous system consists of cerebral ganglia in the head that connect to a ventral nerve cord.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

The notochord is a continuous rod of cartilage, or gristle, which in the embryological growth of vertebrate animals supports the spinal nerve cord before the formation of the vertebrae.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon