temporalis
Meanings
noun
- A fan-shaped muscle which arises from the surface of the temporal fossa and converges to an aponeurosis which contracts into a thick flat tendon inserted into the coronoid process of the mandible; it serves to raise the lower jaw and is involved in closing the mouth and chewing.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin temporālis (“of or belonging to the temples of the head”), ellipsis of mūsculus temporālis (“the temporal muscle”). Doublet of temporal.
Synonyms
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.