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Glite Dictionary
inferior alveolar artery

inferior alveolar artery

7.0
A blood vessel that runs through the lower jaw and carries blood to the lower teeth
  • noun
  • /ɪnˈfɪriər ælˈviːələr ˈɑːrteri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : arteria alveolar inferior
  • The inferior alveolar artery supplies blood to all the lower teeth.

Examples

  • Damage to the inferior alveolar artery can cause serious bleeding during dental surgery.

  • Your dentist avoids the inferior alveolar artery when administering a local anesthetic injection.

  • The inferior alveolar artery supplies blood to the lower jaw.

  • Can you locate the inferior alveolar artery on the diagram?

  • Damage to the inferior alveolar artery can cause serious bleeding during dental surgery.

  • The inferior alveolar artery supplies blood to all the lower teeth.

  • Your dentist avoids the inferior alveolar artery when administering a local anesthetic injection.

Surface Forms

inferior alveolar artery singular
inferior alveolar arteries plural

Morphology

inferior + alveolar + artery

This term is fully compositional: 'artery' (a blood vessel) modified by 'alveolar' (relating to the jaw/tooth sockets) and 'inferior' (lower), so the phrase literally denotes the artery in the lower alveolar region. Anatomical naming follows regular modifier+noun patterns and is cross-linguistically comparable, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the meaning.

Etymology

Inferior alveolar artery is made of three parts: inferior meaning 'lower', alveolar meaning 'tooth socket', and artery meaning 'blood vessel'. It runs inside the lower jaw to bring blood to the lower teeth, so the name literally says 'the blood vessel for the lower tooth sockets'.