Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The pituitary body of the brain, which is lodged in the sella turcica of the sphenoid bone, and attached to the tuber cinereum of the brain by the infundibulum.
  • noun In bot: In angiosperms, the layer of cells in the embryo resulting from the successive fission of the penultimate cell of the suspensor, which gives rise to the primary root and root-cap.
  • noun In mosses, an enlargement of the pedicel at the base of the capsule. Also called, less correctly, apophysis. See cut under Andreæa.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) See Pituitary body, under pituitary.
  • noun (Med.) Cataract.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy The pituitary gland.
  • noun botany The top cell of the suspensor in a dicot embryo, which will differentiate to form part of the root cap.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the master gland of the endocrine system; located at the base of the brain

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin, from Greek hupophusis, attachment underneath, from hupophuein, to grow up beneath : hupo-, hypo- + phuein, to make grow; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek ὑπό (hypo, "under") + φύσις (physis, "nature"), from φύω (phyō, "to bring forth").

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Examples

  • One of the most important metabolic functions of the hypophysis is the part it plays in the formation of protein on which growth depends.

    Bernardo Houssay - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • This work, done in 1930, showed that: (a) the anterior lobe of the hypophysis has an important part in the physiological control of metabolism; (b) the hypophysis is a factor conditioning the severity of diabetes; (c) the injection of anterior lobe of the hypophysis has a diabetogenic effect.

    Bernardo Houssay - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • The diabetogenic effect of the hypophysis is dependent on the liver.

    Bernardo Houssay - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • The hypophysis is a small gland, but its importance is not related to its size, since it regulates many of our most important functions.

    Physiology or Medicine 1947 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • The active factor in the hypophysis is so extremely sensitive that all the preparations must be made at a low temperature, if they are not to be spoiled.

    Physiology or Medicine 1947 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • There are still many problems to be solved, but undoubtedly the hypophysis is one of the most important organs in the regulation of metabolism and the center of the endocrine constellation.

    Bernardo Houssay - Nobel Lecture 1964

  • Davidoff and Cushing had observed already in 1927 that if diabetes was provoked in dogs by the removal of a part of the pancreas, the symptoms were moderated if part of the hypophysis was also taken away.

    Physiology or Medicine 1947 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • Delicate blood vessels in turn connect the midbrain with the pituitary, an important hormone producing gland, often referred to as the hypophysis.

    The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977 - Presentation Speech 1992

  • As early as 1930, it was discovered that small blood vessels connected the hypophysis with the hypothalamus, and that these might be the route of transport of the information from the brain to the hypophysis.

    Physiology or Medicine 1977 - Press Release 1977

  • In some way, information was passed to the hypophysis which, by way of its specific hormones, transferred the information to the other endocrine glands.

    Physiology or Medicine 1977 - Press Release 1977

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