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Showing results for olfactory nerve. Search instead for olfactory sense.

olfactory nerve

American  

noun

Anatomy.
  1. either one of the first pair of cranial nerves, consisting of sensory fibers that conduct to the brain the impulses from the mucous membranes of the nose.


olfactory nerve British  

noun

  1. either one of the first pair of cranial nerves, supplying the mucous membrane of the nose

"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

olfactory nerve Scientific  
  1. Either of the first pair of cranial nerves that carries sensory information relating to smell from the nose to the brain.


Etymology

Origin of olfactory nerve

First recorded in 1660–70

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:

That inflammation could explain why the samples from the smell-loss group had substantially fewer olfactory nerve cells, the “key cells” for smelling, Goldstein said.

From Seattle Times Dec. 27, 2022

Still other researchers study how the virus attacks the olfactory nerve, which conveys smell sensations to the brain.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 29, 2022

The practice was tacitly accepted because it could yield valuable insights — Hunter discovered the tear ducts and the olfactory nerve, among other things — but the human toll was horrifying nonetheless.

From Salon Aug. 1, 2021

“The coronavirus can actually attack and invade olfactory nerve endings,” Hopkins said.

From Washington Post Apr. 14, 2020

The olfactory nerve in the horse, the dog, the ox, and the swine, is the largest of all the cerebral nerves, and has much greater comparative bulk in the quadruped than in the human being.

From The Dog by Youatt, William

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