Meaning & use
free nerve ending
An unspecialized sensory nerve ending in the skin that detects pain, temperature, or light touch.
See it in a sentence
Free nerve endings in the fingertips let us sense sudden heat before we touch a hot pan.
Doctors study free nerve endings to understand how the body registers and transmits pain signals.
A note on using this word
Unlike encapsulated receptors such as Pacinian corpuscles, free nerve endings lack a specialized structure surrounding them.
Words with a similar meaning
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