Ganglion

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ˈɡæŋɡliÉ™n/

Origin

From Ancient Greek γάγγλιον (ganglion, "encysted tumour on a tendon, anything gathered into a ball").

Full definition of ganglion

Noun

1. (neuroanatomy)
1. An encapsulated collection of nerve-cell bodies, located outside the brain and spinal cord.
2. Any of certain masses of gray matter in the brain, as the basal ganglia.
• 2013-08-03, The machine of a new soul, The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.
2. (by extension) A centre of intellectual or industrial force, activity, etc.
3. (pathology) A cystic tumour on a tendon sheath or joint capsule; a ganglion cyst

Derived terms

• ganglial
• autonomic ganglion
• basal ganglion
• spinal ganglion
• ganglion cyst
• gangliectomy/ganglionectomy