fontanelle

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fon·ta·nel

also fon·ta·nelle (fŏn′tə-nĕl′)

Any of the soft membranous gaps between the incompletely formed cranial bones of a fetus or an infant. Also called soft spot.

[Middle English fontinel, from Old French fontanele, diminutive of fontaine, fountain; see fountain.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fontanelle

(ˌfɒntəˈnɛl) or

fontanel

(Anatomy) anatomy any of several soft membranous gaps between the bones of the skull in a fetus or infant

[C16 (in the sense: hollow between muscles): from Old French fontanele, literally: a little spring, from fontaine fountain]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

fontanelle - any membranous gap between the bones of the cranium in an infant or fetus

fontanel, soft spot

child's body - the body of a human child

orifice, porta, opening - an aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity; "the orifice into the aorta from the lower left chamber of the heart"

braincase, brainpan, cranium - the part of the skull that encloses the brain

anterior fontanelle - corresponds to the bregma when bones have ossified

sphenoid fontanel, sphenoid fontanelle, sphenoidal fontanel, sphenoidal fontanelle - the irregularly shaped area on either side of the cranium where the frontal bone and the anterior tip of the parietal bone and the temporal bone and the greater wing of the sphenoid bone meet; corresponds to the pterion when bones have ossified

Translations

fontanella

fontanelle

fontanel [ˌfɒntəˈnel] N → fontanela f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

fontanelle

n fontanela, mollera

References in periodicals archive ?

of fontaine spring, filter) is "a soft spot, such as one of the membrane-covered spaces (fonticuli cranii [NA]) remaining in the incompletely ossified skull of a fetus or infant." [1] The anterior fontanelle is the unossified area of the skull situated at the junction of the frontal, coronal, and sagittal sutures.