Piloerection

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The erection of hairs or papillae. countable, uncountable

    "A third difference between harvester ant stings and other stings is localized piloerection, the standing up of the hairs around the sting site."

  2. 2
    The manifestation of goose bumps. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
horripilationhorripilationpilomotor reflexpilomotor reflex

Example

More examples

"A third difference between harvester ant stings and other stings is localized piloerection, the standing up of the hairs around the sting site."

Etymology

From pilo- + erection.

Related phrases

goose bumpsgoose pimples

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