from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Biology A small space or interstice in a tissue or part, such as the area bounded by small veins in a leaf or the wing of an insect.
- n. A small, specialized, cushionlike area on a cactus from which hairs, glochids, spines, branches, or flowers may arise.
- n. Anatomy A small ring of color around a center portion, as about the nipple of the breast or the part of the iris surrounding the pupil of the eye.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The colored circle around a nipple, more exactly known as areola mammae.
- n. Any small circular area that is different from its immediate environment such as the colored ring around the pupil of the eye (iris) or an inflamed region surrounding a pimple.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. An interstice or small space, as between the cracks of the surface in certain crustaceous lichens; or as between the fibers composing organs or vessels that interlace; or as between the nervures of an insect's wing.
- n. The colored ring around the nipple, or around a vesicle or pustule.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In entomology, a small, generally angular, inclosed space on a surface, as the spaces between the veinlets in the wing of a dragon-fly, or pale spaces between dark lines which form a network. Also areolet.
- n. In botany, a term sometimes used to designate the meshes of cellular tissue or little distinct angular spaces on a surface.
- n. In anatomy: Any little cell, area, or space; especially, one of the small interstices in the meshes of areolar tissue and the like, or among minute interlacing vessels, as capillaries. The colored circle or halo about the nipple of the human mammary gland, pink in virgins, and brown of various shades in women who have borne children. The red ring of inflamed tissue surrounding a pustule. Hence, figuratively
- n. An aureole.
- n. In decorative art and manufacture, any plate, tile, or flat panel.
- n. Also areole.
- n. A tessellation in the thallus of some lichens.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. small circular area such as that around the human nipple or an inflamed area around a pimple or insect bite
- n. small space in a tissue or body part such as the area between veins on a leaf or an insect's wing
Areola: In anatomy, the term areola, plural areolae, (diminutive of Latin area, "open place") is used to describe any circular area such as the colored skin surrounding the nipple.
A few years before, Robert Brown had called attention to the presence in the epidermal cells of orchids and other plants of a characteristic spot which he called the areola or nucleus. [
The area around each nipple called the areola gets darker.
The nipple becomes more prominent, and the circle around its base altered in color and structure, constituting what is called the areola, and as pregnancy advances milk is secreted.
The pigmented, circular area of skin which surrounds the nipple, called the areola, also darkens.
This areola, which is more or less distinctly granular, is slightly convex, and although it seems to be on the surface is in reality covered by the outer lamina of the cell.
The nipple becomes darker in color, and the ring around it, technically termed the areola, also acquires a deeper hue, and extends its circle.
Tony relaxed his grip on my hands as his tongue traced an areola.
The bill defines sexually oriented media as magazines, videos, DVDs or websites that feature pictures or videos of nude people or people wearing attire that "leaves uncovered or visible through less than fully opaque clothing any portion of the breasts below the top of the areola of the breasts, if the person is female, or any portion of the genitals or buttocks."
We never, never, never need to see a close up of your sans-areola nipple what is up with that, btw?