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co·chlea
\ˈkōklēə, ˈkä-\ noun
(plural cochle·ae \-ēˌē, -lēˌī\ ; or cochle·as \-ēəz\)
Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, snail, snail shell, Archimedean screw, spiral stairway, from Greek kochlias, from kochlos land snail (also, a kind of shellfish with a spiral shell); akin to Greek konchē mussel, cockle — more at conch
: a division of the labyrinth of the ear wanting or rudimentary in the lower vertebrates but well developed in birds and mammals and in all the latter except the monotremes coiled into the form of a snail shell, in man consisting of a spiral canal in the petrous part of the temporal bone in which lies a smaller membranous spiral passage that communicates with the sacculus at the base of the spiral, ends blindly near its apex, and contains the organ of Corti — see ear illustration |