turbinal Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun any of the scrolled spongy bones of the nasal passages in man and other vertebrates
turbinate; turbinate bone.

L. turbo, turben, -inis, a top, whirl.

(Anat.) Rolled in a spiral; scroll-like; turbinate; -- applied to the thin, plicated, bony or cartilaginous plates which support the olfactory and mucous membranes of the nasal chambers. ✍ There are usually several of these plates in each nasal chamber. The upper ones, connected directly with the ethmoid bone, are called ethmoturbinals, and the lower, connected with the maxillæ, maxillo-turbinals. Incurved portions of the wall of the nasal chamber are sometimes called pseudoturbinals, to distinguish them from the true turbinals which are free outgrowths into the chambers.