TASTE BUD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does taste bud mean? 

• TASTE BUD (noun)
  The noun TASTE BUD has 1 sense:

1. an oval sensory end organ on the surface of the tongue

  Familiarity information: TASTE BUD used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TASTE BUD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An oval sensory end organ on the surface of the tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

gustatory organ; taste bud; tastebud

Hypernyms ("taste bud" is a kind of...):

chemoreceptor (a sensory receptor that responds to chemical stimuli)

Meronyms (parts of "taste bud"):

neuroepithelium (epithelium associated with special sense organs and containing sensory nerve endings)

gustatory cell; taste cell (an epithelial cell in a taste bud that activates sensory fibers of the facial nerve or the glossopharyngeal nerve or the vagus nerve)

Holonyms ("taste bud" is a part of...):

clapper; glossa; lingua; tongue (a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity)

epiglottis (a flap of cartilage that covers the windpipe while swallowing)

palate; roof of the mouth (the upper surface of the mouth that separates the oral and nasal cavities)

pharynx; throat (the passage to the stomach and lungs; in the front part of the neck below the chin and above the collarbone)

 Context examples 

The faculty of taste, distinguishing substances by means of the taste buds.

(Gustation, NCI Thesaurus)

One of eight or ten projections from the dorsum of the tongue forming a row anterior to and parallel with the sulcus terminalis; each papilla is surrounded by a circular trench (fossa) having a slightly raised outer wall (vallum); on the sides of the vallate papilla and the opposed margin of the vallum are numerous taste buds.

(Circumvallate Papilla, NCI Thesaurus)

The geniculate ganglion cells send central processes to the brain stem and peripheral processes to the taste buds in the anterior tongue, the soft palate, and the skin of the external auditory meatus and the mastoid process.

(Geniculate Ganglion, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)