Ganglion

//ˈɡæŋ.ɡli.ən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An encapsulated collection of nerve cell bodies, typically linked by synapses, and often forming a swelling on a nerve fiber.

    "[T]he wonderfully diversified instincts, mental powers, and affections of ants are generally known, yet their cerebral ganglia are not so large as the quarter of a small pin's head."

  2. 2
    an encapsulated neural structure consisting of a collection of cell bodies or neurons wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of certain masses of gray matter in the central nervous system, as the basal ganglia.

    "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."

  4. 4
    A centre of intellectual or industrial force, activity, etc.
  5. 5
    A benign cystic tumour on a tendon sheath or joint capsule.

Example

More examples

"The plural of ganglion is ganglia."

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek γᾰγγλῐ́ον (gănglĭ́on, “encysted tumour on a tendon or aponeurosis”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.