What does "mesencephalon" mean?

A part of the brain located rostral to the pons and caudal to the thalamus and the basal ganglia, composed of the tectum (dorsal portion) and the tegmentum (ventral portion).

What is a synonym for "mesencephalon"?

Common synonyms include: midbrain, midbrain, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, cerebrum, convolution.

How do you pronounce "mesencephalon"?

Pronounced //ˌmɛzənˈsɛfələn//.

Mesencephalon

//ˌmɛzənˈsɛfələn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A part of the brain located rostral to the pons and caudal to the thalamus and the basal ganglia, composed of the tectum (dorsal portion) and the tegmentum (ventral portion).
2
the middle portion of the brain wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

midbrain midbrain cerebellum cerebral cortex cerebrum convolution

Etymology

From mes- + encephalon.

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