Library / English Dictionary

RECEPTOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An organ having nerve endings (in the skin or viscera or eye or ear or nose or mouth) that respond to stimulation

Synonyms:

receptor; sense organ; sensory receptor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("receptor" is a kind of...):

organ (a fully differentiated structural and functional unit in an animal that is specialized for some particular function)

Meronyms (parts of "receptor"):

papilla (a small nipple-shaped protuberance concerned with taste, touch, or smell)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "receptor"):

lateral line; lateral line organ (sense organs of fish and amphibians; believed to detect pressure changes in the water)

enteroceptor; interoceptor (any receptor that responds to stimuli inside the body)

exteroceptor (any receptor that responds to stimuli outside the body)

pineal eye; third eye (a sensory structure capable of light reception located on the dorsal side of the diencephalon in various reptiles)

baroreceptor (a sensory receptor that responds to pressure)

chemoreceptor (a sensory receptor that responds to chemical stimuli)

thermoreceptor (a sensory receptor that responds to heat and cold)

eye; oculus; optic (the organ of sight)

ear (the sense organ for hearing and equilibrium)

organ of hearing (the part of the ear that is responsible for sensations of sound)

inner ear; internal ear; labyrinth (a complex system of interconnecting cavities; concerned with hearing and equilibrium)

semicircular canal (one of three tube loops filled with fluid and in planes nearly at right angles with one another; concerned with equilibrium)

stretch receptor (a receptor in a muscle that responds to stretching of the muscle tissue)

Holonyms ("receptor" is a part of...):

sensory system (the body's system of sense organs)

Antonym:

effector (an organ (a gland or muscle) that becomes active in response to nerve impulses)

Derivation:

receive (register (perceptual input))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A cellular structure that is postulated to exist in order to mediate between a chemical agent that acts on nervous tissue and the physiological response

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("receptor" is a kind of...):

anatomical structure; bodily structure; body structure; complex body part; structure (a particular complex anatomical part of a living thing and its construction and arrangement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "receptor"):

alpha-adrenergic receptor; alpha-adrenoceptor; alpha receptor (receptors postulated to exist on nerve cell membranes of the sympathetic nervous system in order to explain the specificity of certain agents that affect only some sympathetic activities (such as vasoconstriction and relaxation of intestinal muscles and contraction of smooth muscles))

beta-adrenergic receptor; beta-adrenoceptor; beta receptor (receptors postulated to exist on nerve cell membranes of the sympathetic nervous system in order to explain the specificity of certain agents that affect only some sympathetic activities (such as vasodilation and increased heart beat))

Credits

 Context examples: 

It is a type of receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor and a type of angiogensis inhibitor.

(ABT-869, NCI Dictionary)

Also called MC1R and melanotropin receptor.

(Melanocortin 1 receptor, NCI Dictionary)

These results showed that the receptor responsible for detecting carbon dioxide also detects skin odorants.

(How mosquitoes detect people, NIH)

Genetically eliminating Shisa7 from neurons reduced the number of GABAA receptors and decreased the strength of electrical currents generated by synaptic GABAA receptor responses.

(‘Sticky’ gene may help Valium calm nerves, National Institutes of Health)

Also called MC1R and melanocortin 1 receptor.

(Melanotropin receptor, NCI Dictionary)

Members of the G protein-coupled superfamily of receptors.

(Melatonin Receptor, NCI Thesaurus)

It is a type of N-methyl-D-asparatate (NMDA) receptor antagonist.

(Memantine hydrochloride, NCI Dictionary)

A beta-adrenergic receptor agonist with tocolytic activity.

(Meluadrine, NCI Thesaurus)

Melatonin receptor type 1B (362 aa, ~40 kDa) is encoded by the human MTNR1B gene.

(Melatonin Receptor Type 1B, NCI Thesaurus)

The hydrochloride salt form of acolbifene, a fourth-generation estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) with potential lipid lowering and antineoplastic activity.

(Acolbifene hydrochloride, NCI Thesaurus)