- Crypt
- In anatomy, a crypt is variously a blind alley, a tube with no exit, a depression, or a pit — in an otherwise fairly flat surface. Cryptic in the case of the tonsils refer to the tonsillar crypts which are little pitlike depressions in the tonsils. The words crypt and cryptic come from the Greek "kryptos" meaning hidden or concealed. Thus, cryptic tonsillitis may be hidden, concealed because it is down in the pits (of the tonsil).
* * *- enamel c. the narrow, mesenchyme-filled space between the dental ledge and an enamel organ. SYN: enamel niche.- crypts of Henle infoldings of conjunctiva.- crypts of iris 1. pits near the pupillary margin of the anterior surface of the iris. 2. spaces in the anterior iris stroma through which the aqueous washes with every pupillary movement.- crypts of Lieberkühn SYN: intestinal glands, under gland.- tonsillar c. [TA] one of the variable number of deep recesses that extend into the lingual, palatine, pharyngeal, and tubal tonsils from the free surface where they open at the tonsillar fossa. SYN: crypta tonsillaris [TA].
* * *
crypt 'kript n1) an anatomical pit, depression, or invagination <a developing tooth in its bony \crypt> see TONSILLAR CRYPT2) a simple tubular gland (as a crypt of Lieberkühn)* * *
n.a small sac, follicle, or cavity; for example, the crypts of Lieberkühn (see Lieberkühn's glands), which are intestinal glands.* * *
(kript) [L. crypta, from Gr. kryptos hidden] a blind pit or tube on a free surface; see also crypta [TA].
Medical dictionary. 2011.
