dura mater
noun
Simple meaning
The tough and inflexible outermost of the three layers of the meninges, enveloping the brain and spinal cord.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
duuruhmahterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʊɹəˈmɑtɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
anatomy
The tough and inflexible outermost of the three layers of the meninges, enveloping the brain and spinal cord.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: The tough and inflexible outermost of the three layers of the meninges, enveloping the brain and spinal cord.
Used this way, dura mater is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.