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smooth muscle

smooth muscle

1 3.9
Muscle in the walls of organs and blood vessels that works without thinking
  • noun
  • /smuːð ˈmʌsəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : músculo liso
  • When the smooth muscle contracts, it aids in moving food through the digestive tract.
  • smooth muscle cells
  • vascular smooth muscle
  • bronchial smooth muscle

And so the Airways have smooth muscle and when they become activated, the smooth muscle can contract or relax.

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Examples

  • So just about every organ, gland tissue and smooth muscle is innervated in this dual fashion.

  • The main effect is a bronchodilator action directly on the β2-adrenoceptors of smooth muscle, providing relief for asthma sufferers.

    Academic text (2011)
  • It's called smooth muscle, not striated muscle.

  • All her muscles, including her smooth muscles, were essentially paralyzed.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • And so the Airways have smooth muscle and when they become activated, the smooth muscle can contract or relax.

  • Viagra is a modern drug that relaxes the smooth muscles and was the first drug of its kind.

    Blog text (21)
  • The usual cause in in children is spasm of the muscle, smooth muscle around the Airways and the lungs.

  • She has an obstruction that is not allowing the normal peristalsis of the smooth muscle to continue.

  • Patients with asthma have increased bronchial smooth muscle tone and mucus hypersecretion, possibly the result of increased cholinergic activity.

    Academic text (2017)
  • The smooth muscle in the walls of blood vessels helps regulate blood pressure.

Synonyms

involuntary muscle
vssmooth muscle
  • Specialized
1 4.2

A muscle in organs like the stomach or bladder that works without you thinking, not the heart

is a specific unstriped muscle tissue rather than the broader uncontrolled muscle category

Antonyms

striated muscle
  • Specialized
1 4.4

A type of body tissue with light and dark stripes that moves bones when you want

How Automatic

cardiac muscle
  • Specialized
1 3.8
smooth muscle
  • Specialized
1 3.9
skeletal muscle
  • Specialized
3 3.8

Surface Forms

smooth muscle singular

Morphology

smooth + muscle

The compound is compositional: 'smooth' describes a property of the 'muscle', so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a type of muscle with a smooth (non‑striped) appearance/function. The term is also cross‑linguistically paralleled in many languages and follows ordinary adjective + noun formation, so its basic meaning is immediately accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

Smooth muscle comes from how the tissue looks under a microscope: its cells have no stripes and so look smooth rather than banded. That's why the name means the muscle that is 'not striped' and that 'works without thinking' inside organs.