neural
adjective
Simple meaning
Of, or about the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nuuruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnʊɹəl
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.
adjective
biology
Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
computing
Modelled on the arrangement of neurons in the brain.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
Used this way, neural is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- 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.
More ways to use neural
- “Scientists are studying neural pathways in the brain.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The branch of medical science that deals with the nervous system.
A medical specialist in the nervous system and the disorders affecting it.
Related to Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
Related to Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Computer architecture in which processors are connected in a manner suggestive of connections between neurons.
Computer architecture in which processors are connected in a manner suggestive of connections between neurons.
A structure that is part of the nervous system.
A tube of ectodermal tissue in the embryo from which the brain and spinal cord develop.
A structure arising dorsally from a vertebral centrum and enclosing the spinal cord.
The electrical discharge that travels along a nerve fiber.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Affecting or characteristic of both neural and muscular tissue.
A substance that interferes with the neural transmission between motor neurons and skeletal muscles.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- neuronaladjective
- neurosciencenoun
- neuronnoun
- cnsnoun
- retinanoun
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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.