prefrontal
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of prefrontal
Explanation
Use the adjective prefrontal when you're talking about the very front part of the brain. Take care of your prefrontal cortex; it controls your personality. In an anatomy class, you'd gain a lot of information about the prefrontal cortex, since it's a vital section of the brain. The word prefrontal comes up in discussions of non-human animals as well, usually describing their brains, but sometimes in discussions of the skull, specifically the bones in front of a bird's or reptile's eye socket. Prefrontal combines pre-, "before," with frontal, "being in front," emphasizing the far forward location.
Vocabulary lists containing prefrontal
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.
For many years, scientists believed that attention was controlled primarily by the prefrontal cortex, a brain region that is especially developed in humans and other primates.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
The prefrontal cortex, the brain’s “command center,” doesn’t finish developing until the mid- to late 20s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
A study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience showed participants’ brains could automate tasks by offloading them from the prefrontal cortex to the temporal cortex.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Two key regions are often involved: the amygdala, which helps shape the sense of safety or threat, and the prefrontal cortex, which supports planning, decision making, and emotional control.
From Science Daily ● May 16, 2026
Damasio studied patients with damage to a small but critical part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which lies behind the nose.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
