neuron

/ˈnʌrɑn/

/ˈnʌrɒn/

Other forms: neurons

The cells in your nervous system are called neurons. Scientists believe there are approximately 90 billion neurons in your brain.

You can also call a neuron a nerve cell, or a cell whose job it is to carry electrochemical messages throughout the nervous system. In the 1880s, neuron was used to mean "the brain and spinal column," or the nervous system itself. Later in the nineteenth century, neuron came to mean "nerve cell with appendages," from the Greek neuro-, "nerve."

Definitions of neuron

1. noun

   a cell that is specialized to conduct nerve impulses
   synonyms: nerve cell

   types:

   gangliocyte, ganglion cell

   a nerve cell whose body is outside the central nervous system

   brain cell

   a nerve cell in the brain

   efferent neuron, motoneuron, motor nerve fiber, motor neuron

   a neuron conducting impulses outwards from the brain or spinal cord

   afferent neuron, sensory neuron

   a neuron conducting impulses inwards to the brain or spinal cord

   Golgi cell, Golgi's cell

   a neuron in the cerebral cortex with short dendrites and with either a long axon or a short axon that ramifies in the grey matter

   Purkinje cell

   a large densely branching neuron that is the characteristic cell of the cerebellar cortex

   type of:

   somatic cell, vegetative cell

   any of the cells of a plant or animal except the reproductive cells; a cell that does not participate in the production of gametes