Piloerector

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A muscle responsible for piloerection.

    "Nor should we neglect that quintessentially mammalian trait, our hair, which, at the behest of tiny piloerector muscles at the base of each strand, can puff up to trap pockets of still air, one of the finest insulators known."

Example

More examples

"Nor should we neglect that quintessentially mammalian trait, our hair, which, at the behest of tiny piloerector muscles at the base of each strand, can puff up to trap pockets of still air, one of the finest insulators known."

Etymology

From pilo- + erector.

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