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.
The science of willpower is that there is part of the brain toward the front, toward the lateral prefrontal cortex, that is in charge of ordering around the rest of your brain.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026
Adolescents already have a harder time than adults with planning ahead and controlling their impulses, because of the brain’s immature prefrontal cortex.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
The researchers examined postmortem samples from the prefrontal cortex, an area at the front of the brain.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
The team also found that the more the car sorting task was "offloaded" from the prefrontal cortex, the better participants performed a second task at the same time.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
