Neural

How to spell neural

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce neural

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does neural mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the nerves or the nervous system, or to a computing model based on it.

Neural in a sentence

• The scan revealed unusual neural activity in the patient's brain.

• The company trained a neural network to flag fraudulent transactions.

Where does neural come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Neural comes from the Greek neuron, which originally meant a sinew, tendon, or cord, and only later came to mean a nerve in the body. Greek anatomists used the word for the tough fibres that connect and move the body, and the sense gradually shifted toward the fibres that carry sensation and signal. Scholars built the modern scientific adjective on this root by adding the Latin-derived ending -al, meaning 'relating to', so neural simply means 'relating to the nerves or the nervous system'. The word entered English in the nineteenth century as anatomy and physiology became precise sciences, and it has since spread into computing through phrases like 'neural network'. The same neuron root sits inside neuron, neurology, and neurotic, all of which keep the tell-tale 'neur' spelling that learners must preserve.

How the word is built

• neur- (from Greek neuron: nerve, sinew)
• -al (adjective-forming suffix: relating to)