Ethmoid bone

An irregularly shaped 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. The word "ethmoid" comes from two Greek words: "ethmos" meaning sieve + "eidos" meaning resemblance = resembling a sieve.

* * *

ethmoid bone n a light spongy cubical bone of the skull that is made up of thin plates and forms much of the walls of the nasal cavity and part of those of the orbits

* * *

a bone in the floor of the cranium that contributes to the nasal cavity and orbits. The part of the ethmoid forming the roof of the nasal cavity - the cribriform plate - is pierced with many small holes through which the olfactory nerves pass. See also nasal concha, skull.

* * *

os ethmoidale.