innervate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to communicate nervous energy to; stimulate through nerves.
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to furnish with nerves; grow nerves into.
verb
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to supply nerves to (a bodily organ or part)
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to stimulate (a bodily organ or part) with nerve impulses
Other Word Forms
- innervation noun
Etymology
Origin of innervate
Explanation
Unless you’re into anatomy or zoology, you probably don’t need the word innervate very often. It’s pronounced “inNERVate," accent on the “nerve.” To innervate is “to supply nerves to.” It also means “to stimulate” or “to supply with energy.” The word innervate sounds like what it is — it means to “put the nerves into” something. When nerves go into muscle fiber, they innervate the muscle fiber. Innervate is to supply nerves to something, but it can also mean to energize. Think of all the energy you have when you get nervous! Sometimes nervousness can even innervate the hairs on your arms, i.e. stimulate them and make them stand up.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They knew that vocal cord adduction is controlled by laryngeal motor neurons, so they began by tracing backward to find the neurons that innervate those motor neurons.
From Science Daily • Mar. 7, 2024
Your sensory neurons innervate all the muscles in your body, and from how much your muscles are stretched, you have a very visual—without actually looking—image of where your limbs are.
From Scientific American • Oct. 8, 2021
Some parts of the body might be more sensitive to NaV1.7 blockers than others, because neurons that innervate one organ might have different populations of ion channels than neurons in another.
From Nature • Sep. 10, 2019
“As it goes down, the branches innervate the muscle, and then it goes down to the thumb over here,” he says.
From National Geographic • Jul. 29, 2016
Optic ganglia: are at the sides of the procerebrum and innervate the compound eyes.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
