axon Definition
axon (ak′sän′)
noun
that part of a nerve cell through which impulses travel away from the cell body
Etymology: ModL < Gr axōn, axis
axon Related Forms
ax′o·nal (ak′sə nəl) adjective
axon Usage Examples
Preposition: of
cell: The O.N. is a tract consisting mainly of the axons of the ganglion cells of the retina.
Converse of object
- regenerate: Significantly more sciatic nerve axons regenerated in the exercised animals than the sedentary animals.
- call: The motor nerve cell body has a long fiber called an axon, which extends from the central nervous system to the muscles.
- have: The cell body of a sensory nerve has two axons.
Adjective modifier
- myelinated: These sclerotic plaques are the decay in the myelin sheathing of the myelinated axons from distinct regions within the CNS.
- unmyelinated: Gray matter contains nerve cell bodies and unmyelinated axons.
- sensory: In the absence of these embryonic growth cues adult sensory axons make major growth errors at key choice points.
- single: A single long axon carries the nerve impulse away from the cell body.
- long: A single long axon carries the nerve impulse away from the cell body.
Modifies a noun
- degeneration: In this way, we will build up a pathway of molecular events and their regulation during the early stages of axon degeneration.
- regeneration: Axon regeneration in the CNS fails for two reasons.
- terminal: Like all neurones, the sensory neuron has a cell body, an axon, dendrites and axon terminals.
- branch: Control of axon branch dynamics by correlated activity in vivo.
- guidance: In development we are looking at the roles of adhesion molecules in axon guidance at these regions.
- growth: Axon growth and guidance in the developing and regenerating CNS Jeremy SH Taylor BSc PhD University Lecturer Tel.
Noun used with modifier
- squid: Nobel Prize winning work on giant squid axons was undertaken at Plymouth.
- nerve: Figure 22 Transport of material along the nerve axon.
- terminal: Motor neurons that survive develop new terminal axon sprouts in response to an unknown stimulus.
- motor: Some branchial motor axons travel with the inferior alveolar nerve.
- cell: Nerves These are made up of bundles of nerve cell axons.

