Meaning & use
sebaceous
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nounmedicaltechnical
Producing or carrying an oily substance that keeps skin and hair soft.
Grammar: Used before nouns such as gland or cyst: sebaceous glands.
Patterns
- a sebaceous gland
Sebaceous glands in the skin release oil near each hair.
A sebaceous cyst appeared on his back.
Teenage skin often has very active sebaceous glands.
Common combinations
- sebaceous gland
- A blocked sebaceous gland can cause a pimple.
- sebaceous cyst
- The doctor removed a sebaceous cyst from her neck.
- sebaceous secretion
- Sebaceous secretion helps protect the skin from drying.
- sebaceous oil
- Washing too often strips away sebaceous oil.
Synonyms and how they differ
- oily
- Oily is everyday and can describe food or skin, while sebaceous is a medical term for the skin's own oil glands.
- greasy
- Greasy is informal and may sound unpleasant, whereas sebaceous is neutral and scientific.
- fatty
- Fatty describes fat content in general, not the specific skin oil.
Opposites
Word family
- sebum noun
- the oily substance produced by the skin
- seborrhea noun
- a condition of too much oil on the skin
- seborrheic adjective
- relating to seborrhea
Commonly confused: sebaceous or sebaceous? sebaceous or cetaceous?
sebaceous vs sebaceous
Do not mix it up with sweat glands, which are sudoriferous and produce sweat rather than oil.
sebaceous vs cetaceous
Cetaceous refers to whales and dolphins; it sounds similar but is unrelated.
Practice
Which gland releases oil onto the skin and hair?
Choose one answer.
Sebaceous glands make the oily sebum for skin and hair. Salivary glands make saliva, the thyroid makes hormones for metabolism, and adrenal glands are above the kidneys.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sebaceous”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.