Meaning & use
mandibular
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nounmedicalbiology
Relating to the mandible, the bone of the lower jaw, or to the jaws and mouthparts of an animal.
Grammar: Almost always used before a noun: a mandibular fracture.
Patterns
- mandibular nerve
- mandibular fracture
The X-ray showed a small mandibular fracture on the left side.
Dentists numb the mandibular nerve before removing a lower wisdom tooth.
The beetle's powerful mandibular muscles let it crush hard seeds.
Common combinations
- mandibular fracture
- A mandibular fracture often follows a hard blow to the chin.
- mandibular nerve
- The mandibular nerve supplies feeling to the lower teeth.
- mandibular molar
- The dentist found decay in a mandibular molar.
- mandibular joint
- Clicking in the mandibular joint can be a sign of strain.
- mandibular advancement device
- A mandibular advancement device can reduce snoring.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lower-jaw
- Lower-jaw is the plain-English equivalent and is common in everyday speech, while mandibular is the precise clinical term.
Opposites
Word family
- mandible noun
- the lower jawbone, or an insect's biting mouthpart
- maxillary adjective
- relating to the upper jaw
- submandibular adjective
- located beneath the lower jaw
- mandibulate adjective
- having jaws that bite, as many insects do
Commonly confused: mandibular or maxillary?
mandibular vs maxillary
Maxillary refers to the upper jaw, while mandibular refers to the lower jaw.
Practice
A dentist who talks about a mandibular tooth is referring to a tooth in the ___.
Choose one answer.
The mandible is the lower jaw, so mandibular means lower-jaw. The upper jaw would be called maxillary.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mandibular”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.