Definition of "areola" []

• Biology A small space or interstice in a tissue or part, such as the area bounded by small veins in a leaf or the wing of an insect. (noun)
• A small, specialized, cushionlike area on a cactus from which hairs, glochids, spines, branches, or flowers may arise. (noun)
• Anatomy A small ring of color around a center portion, as about the nipple of the breast or the part of the iris surrounding the pupil of the eye. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Areola: In anatomy, the term areola, plural areolae, (diminutive of Latin area, "open place") is used to describe any circular area such as the colored skin surrounding the nipple."
• "A few years before, Robert Brown had called attention to the presence in the epidermal cells of orchids and other plants of a characteristic spot which he called the areola or nucleus. ["
• "The area around each nipple called the areola gets darker."