internal ear

American  

noun

1. the inner portion of the ear, involved in hearing and balance, consisting of a bony labyrinth that is composed of a vestibule, semicircular canals, and a cochlea and that encloses a membranous labyrinth.

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internal ear British  

noun

1. Also called: inner ear.   labyrinth.  the part of the ear that consists of the cochlea, vestibule, and semicircular canals

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Example Sentences

This design feature is inspired by the multiple synaptic connections between hair cells in the internal ear and neurons, providing a backup should one pathway fail.

From Science Daily • Jan. 13, 2024

The reader has an internal ear: so must the writer.

From The Guardian • Oct. 7, 2017

Ama was a wine vessel used in the early Christian Church, also a medical term for "an enlargement of the semicircular canal of the internal ear."

From Time Magazine Archive

Sound vibrations, which strike the drum membrane, are conveyed by means of a chain of three small bones through the middle ear to the nervous apparatus of the internal ear.

From The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI) by Winslow, Kenelm

Otī′tis, inflammation of the internal ear; Ot′ocyst, an auditory vesicle; Ot′olith, a calcareous concretion within the membranous labyrinth of the ear; Otol′ogist, one skilled in otology; Otol′ogy, knowledge of the ear.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various