THIRD EYE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does third eye mean? 

• THIRD EYE (noun)
  The noun THIRD EYE has 1 sense:

1. a sensory structure capable of light reception located on the dorsal side of the diencephalon in various reptiles

  Familiarity information: THIRD EYE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THIRD EYE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sensory structure capable of light reception located on the dorsal side of the diencephalon in various reptiles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

pineal eye; third eye

Hypernyms ("third eye" is a kind of...):

receptor; sense organ; sensory receptor (an organ having nerve endings (in the skin or viscera or eye or ear or nose or mouth) that respond to stimulation)

Holonyms ("third eye" is a part of...):

betweenbrain; diencephalon; interbrain; thalmencephalon (the posterior division of the forebrain; connects the cerebral hemispheres with the mesencephalon)

 Context examples 

A translucent membrane present in the eye of some animals, also called the third eye.

(Nictitating Membrane, NCI Thesaurus)

When the time comes I will describe that wondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus—a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head—was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)