Alveolus

Look up alveolus or alveolar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Alveolus (plural alveoli, adjective alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit that may refer to several more specific structures:

• In anatomy:
  • Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs
  • Alveolar gland
  • Dental alveolus, also known as "tooth socket", a socket in the jaw that holds the roots of teeth. The following anatomical terms refer to this context.
  • Alveolar ridge, the jaw structure that contains the dental alveoli
  • Alveolar canals
  • arteries
    • Superior alveolar artery
      • Anterior superior alveolar arteries
      • Posterior superior alveolar artery
    • Inferior alveolar artery
  • nerves
    • Anterior superior alveolar nerve
    • Middle superior alveolar nerve
    • Inferior alveolar nerve

• In medicine:
  • Alveolar soft part sarcoma

• In linguistics:
  • Alveolar consonant, a linguistic vocalization depending upon touching tongue to alveolar ridge. (Note: There are 16 subtypes of alveolar consonants linked from the target page and not listed separately here.)
  • Alveolar plosive (disambiguation page)

Alveolus is considered by some (but not all) sources to be synonymous with acinus.

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