nerve cord
Americannoun
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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.
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They put them together into a 3D map of the brain and nerve cord and compared them to the earlier, female mapping.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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
It then attaches via the head to the surface and undergoes metamorphosis into the adult form, at which point the notochord, nerve cord, and tail disappear.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Injects the poison from her sting into the caterpillar's central nerve cord.
From They Twinkled Like Jewels by Philip José Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
