pulvinar
noun, adjective
pulvinar is a noun meaning “A prominence on the posterior part of the thalamus of the human brain” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-U-L-V-I-N-A-R, and it appears about once in every 44 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of pulvinar is pulvinars.
What does pulvinar mean?
noun
- 1
A prominence on the posterior part of the thalamus of the human brain.
- 2
obsoleteA pillow or cushion.
adjective
- 1
Padded; formed like a cushion.
- 2
Of or pertaining to the pulvinar.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of pulvinar
- pulvinars plural
- more pulvinar comparative
- most pulvinar superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is pulvinar?
Pulvinar appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Pulvinar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense prominence on the thalamus:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | pulvinar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pulvinar come from?
Borrowed from Latin pulvīnar (“a cushion”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).