Cerebral

How to spell cerebral

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cerebral

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cerebral mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the brain or to the cerebrum.
2. adjectiveIntellectual and analytical rather than emotional or physical.

Cerebral in a sentence

• The scan revealed reduced cerebral blood flow on one side.

• His films are deliberately cerebral, full of quiet ideas rather than action.

• Their daughter was born with mild cerebral palsy.

• She has a calm, cerebral approach to solving disputes at work.

Where does cerebral come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin cerebrum, the plain word for 'brain', which itself is thought to descend from an ancient root meaning 'head' or 'horn', a root that also lies behind words like 'horn' and 'cranium'. From cerebrum, scholars formed the adjective cerebralis to mean 'belonging to the brain'. English borrowed the term in the early 1800s, most likely by way of French cérébral, when anatomists and physicians needed precise vocabulary for the structures of the head. Only later did the figurative sense develop, describing a person or activity that is intellectual and thought-driven rather than physical or emotional. The spelling trap lives in that quiet middle: the unstressed second 'e' and the soft 'c' both sound like a vague schwa and an 's', so the link to cerebrum is worth keeping in mind to pin the letters down.

How the word is built

• cerebr- (from Latin cerebrum: brain)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)