cerebral
- 01 C1 Advanced
relating to the brain, especially the part that controls thought and movement.
pertaining to the cerebrum or the brain as a whole.
Simple“The patient was kept in the hospital for observation after a cerebral injury.”
In context“The surgeon explained that the cerebral cortex is responsible for many high-level functions, including language and information processing.”
Synonymsbrain relatedneurological - 02 C2 Proficiency
a technical word for sounds made by curling the tongue back.
an older term for retroflex consonants, produced with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate.
Simple“In some languages, the 't' sound is cerebral, meaning the tongue curls back.”
In context“Nineteenth-century philologists frequently used the term 'cerebral' to categorise the retroflex consonants found in Sanskrit and other Indic languages.”
UsageThis term is largely replaced by 'retroflex' in modern linguistics.
Synonymsretroflex
“Ricote’s style is slightly more cerebral; her comedy is often powered by a goofy yet genuine sense of awe at the human condition.”
“A career-long tug-of-war between Simon’s cerebral and conversational language courses through Graceland.”
Borrowing from French cérébral, from Latin cerebrum (“a brain”); equivalent to cerebrum + -al.
Semantic loan from Sanskrit मूर्धन्य (mūrdhanya, “pertaining to the head”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.