Meatus
Encyclopedia
In anatomy
, a meatus is a natural body opening or canal (Latin, 4th declension pl. meatus, or meatuses—often incorrectly meati).
Examples include:
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
, a meatus is a natural body opening or canal (Latin, 4th declension pl. meatus, or meatuses—often incorrectly meati).
Examples include:
- the external acoustic meatus, the opening of the ear canal
- The internal auditory meatusInternal auditory meatusThe internal auditory meatus is a canal in the petrous part of the temporal bone of the skull that carries nerves from inside the cranium towards the middle and inner ear compartments namely cranial nerve VII and cranial nerve VIII.-Structure:The...
, a canal in the temporal bone of the skull - the urinary meatusUrinary meatusThe urinary meatus is an orifice of the urethra. It is the point at which urine and, in males, semen exits the urethra. The meatus features varying degrees of sensitivity to the touch among males and females....
, which is the opening of the urethra, situated on the glans penis in males, and in the vulva in females - the superior meatusSuperior meatusThe superior meatus, the smallest of the three meatuses of the nose, occupies the middle third of the lateral wall of the nasal cavity.It lies between the superior nasal conchæ and middle nasal conchæ; the sphenopalatine foramen opens into it behind, and the posterior ethmoidal cells in front.The...
, middle meatusMiddle meatusThe middle meatus is a nasal opening or canal situated between the middle and inferior conchæ, and extends from the anterior to the posterior end of the latter....
and inferior meatusInferior meatusThe inferior meatus, the largest of the three meatuses of the nose, is the space between the inferior concha and the floor of the nasal cavity....
of the nose