Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A structure in the form of a network, especially of nerves, blood vessels, or lymphatics.
  • noun A combination of interlaced parts; a network.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, the mass of branched and anastomosing filaments of certain algæ.
  • noun In physical geography, the irregular and complicated junction of a number of similar features, such as ridges, river channels, etc.
  • noun A network; any collection of intimately coherent parts, as of an argument.
  • noun In anatomy, an interlacing of nerves, vessels, or fibers; a net-like arrangement of parts, or the parts so disposed: especially said of certain delicate vascular membranes chiefly composed of minute anastomosing blood-vessels, as the choroid plexus, and of similar arrangements of nerves of the spinal and sympathetic systems.
  • noun In mathematics, a system of one-fold relations.
  • noun The continuation of the prostatic plexus, supplying the erectile tissue of the penis. Also called cavernous nerves.
  • noun Same as gastric plexus .
  • noun A secondary plexus of the cæliac, accompanying the gastric artery. Also called coronary plexus.
  • noun A large and copiously anastomosing network of veins in the lower wall of the rectum, beneath the mucous coat, from which the hemorrhoidal veins proceed.
  • noun A plexus of veins surrounding the base of the prostate, formed mainly from the dorsal veins of the penis.
  • noun The lower section of the sacral plexus .
  • noun A plexus of veins in the back of the pelvis, tributary to the middle sacral vein.
  • noun Same as pampiniform plexus.
  • noun Venous channels at the sides of the uterus, and in the broad ligaments, emptying into the ovarian veins.
  • noun A plexus derived from the pelvic plexus, distributed to the lower part and side of the bladder, the prostate, and the seminal vesicle.

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

  • noun (Anat.) A network of vessels, nerves, or fibers.
  • noun (Math.) The system of equations required for the complete expression of the relations which exist between a set of quantities.
  • noun A network; an intricate or interwoven combination of elements or parts in a coherent structure.

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

  • noun A network or interwoven mass, especially (anatomy) of nerves, blood vessels, or lymphatic vessels.
  • noun mathematics The system of equations required for the complete expression of the relations which exist between a set of quantities.

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

  • noun a network of intersecting blood vessels or intersecting nerves or intersecting lymph vessels

Etymologies

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

[New Latin, from Latin, braid, from past participle of plectere, to plait; see plek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin, from plex-, past participle stem of plectere ("plait, interweave").

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Examples

  • December 10th, 2007 at 4: 25 pm wwbd says: chodin is at home resting. this weekend we had double sessions at the gym and hombre went big, he totally ripped his solar plexus from the bone, he’ll be here manana.

    RACHEL BILSON DOESNT GET NAKED 2007

  • Place your left hand over your solar plexus, which is located between your lower ribs, and your right hand over your navel.

    Itsy Bitsy Yoga Helen Garabedian 2004

  • Place your left hand over your solar plexus, which is located between your lower ribs, and your right hand over your navel.

    Itsy Bitsy Yoga Helen Garabedian 2004

  • Focus your mental energy on your third chakra, or solar plexus, which is the seat of your personal power.

    Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001

  • Focus your mental energy on your third chakra, or solar plexus, which is the seat of your personal power.

    Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001

  • Several adjacent nerves tend to meet in a complicated interlacing pattern called a plexus (see p. 164).

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

  • They have small ganglia developed upon them, and are derived from the renal plexus, which is formed by branches from the celiac plexus, the lower and outer part of the celiac ganglion and aortic plexus, and from the lesser and lowest splanchnic nerves.

    XI. Splanchnology. 3b. The Urinary Organs 1918

  • The posterior divisions of all three trunks unite to form the posterior cord or fasciculus of the plexus, which is situated behind the second portion of the axillary artery.

    IX. Neurology. 6b. The Anterior Divisions 1918

  • The drainage from the cavernous sinus is now upward through the original trunk of the middle plexus, which is now the superior petrosal sinus, into the newly established dorsal channel.

    V. Angiology. 3. Development of the Vascular System 1918

  • Character might be in a sense defined as a plexus of motor habits.

    Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene G. Stanley Hall 1885

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  • Lost, and forgotten in the plexus of the city's life, what had befallen them?

    - Frank Norris, The Octopus, bk 2, ch. 8

    August 29, 2008