labyrinth- +

The surgical removal of one or more of the membranous semicircular ear canals while leaving the ampullated ends and the saccule.

1. A place with a lot of crisscrossing or complicated passages, tunnels, or paths in which it would be easy to become lost.
2. An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze.
3. Something which is made up of many different parts that is complicated and hard to understand: "They tried to figure out a labyrinth of tax regulations."
4. A structure consisting of connected cavities or canals, especially the inside of the ear.
5. The internal or inner ear, composed of the semicircular ducts, vestibule, and the cochlea.
6. Any group of communicating cavities, as in each lateral mass of the ethmoid bone.

Ethmoid bone: an irregularly shaped, spongy bone that provides the floor of the front part of the skull and the roof of the nose.

The ethmoid bone consists of two masses of thin plates enclosing air cells and looks like a sieve.

1. The complete surgical removal of the membranous labyrinth of the inner ear.
2. Excision (cutting out) of the labyrinth; a destructive operation to destroy labyrinthine function.
3. Excision of the labyrinth of the ear, done because of implacable vestibular dysfunction when severe hearing loss is already present.

Resembling a labyrinth, or maze, in form or complexity.

An order of teleostean (bone) fish, including the Anabas, or climbing perch, and other allied fishes.

The Anabas fish are remarkable for their power of living a long time out of water, making their way on land for considerable distances, and for climbing trees; a climbing fish.

They have, connected with the gill chamber, a special cavity in which a labyrinthiform membrane is arranged so as to retain water to supply the gills while the fish leaves the water and travels about on land, or even climbs trees.

1. Having the form of a labyrinth; intricate.
2. With complicated sinuous (wavy like the path of a snake) lines or winding passages.

1. Resembling or consisting of a labyrinth in form or complexity; such as, passages or paths: "We had to walk through a labyrinthine maze of back streets."
2. Relating to, affecting, or originating in the inner ear: "He had labyrinthine deafness."
3. Extremely complicated and therefore difficult to understand.

The fluid separating the osseous and the membranous labyrinths of the inner ear.

1. Inflammation of the inner ear which can cause vertigo (loss of balance) and vomiting (nausea).
2. Inflammation of the labyrinth, the system of intercommunicating canals and cavities within the inner ear responsible for sensing balance.

Labyrinthitis may be accompanied by the sudden onset of a feeling of vertigo triggered by head or body movement together with feelings of nausea and malaise which may be due to various causes including viral and bacterial infections.

3. Etymology: the term labyrinth comes from the Greek labyrinthos for "a structure with intricate passages intersecting each other".

A labyrinth played a role in Greek mythology with reference to a maze on Crete where the monstrous Minotaur roamed and devoured his victims.

1. A genus of very large fossil amphibians, of the Triassic period, having bony plates on the under side of the body.
2. Etymology: literally "labyrinth-toothed".

It is from the order Labyrinthodonta which is also known as Mastodonsaurus.

Surgical incision into the labyrinth; such as, the internal ear or the auris interna which is the labyrinth, consisting of the vestibule, cochlea, cochlear, vestibular aqueducts, semicircular canals; and, according to many authorities, the mastoid bone.

1. A convoluted part of the kidney lobule.
2. The anatomic nomenclature for a system of intercommunicating cavities or canals.

1. A network of paths, streets, or passageways in which a walker or driver might easily become lost in a maze of narrow passageways.
2. Any confusing tangle or muddle; for example, of regulations or procedures, that are difficult to negotiate.
3. An intricate, usually confusing network of interconnecting pathways, as in a garden; a labyrinth.
4. Etymology: from Middle English mase, "confusion"; maze, from masen, "to confuse, to daze"; from Old English masian, "to confound".
5. Short for amaze, to astonish, to stun, or to stupefy someone.

The word amaze comes from amasian, "stupefy, make crazy" from a-, probably used here as an intensitive prefix, plus -masian. The sense of "overwhelm with wonder" is from about 1592. Amazing in the sense of "great beyond expectation" is first recorded in 1704.

Labyrinthitis, or inflammation of the canals and cavities of the inner ear; resulting from bacterial invasion, characterized by all of the diagnostic evidence of infection, including the production of pus cells.

1. A precursor of certain varieties of the fenestration operation for the relief of deafness.
2. A medical operation uniting a neotympanic system to a labyrinthine fistula for the cure of progressive hearing loss from otosclerosis.