How to Use axon in a Sentence

axon

noun
  • The tip of the axon, called a growth cone, senses chemicals drifting by.
    — Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 16 May 2011
  • These signals then travel down long strands of neural tissue called axons.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 17 Apr. 2025
  • The synapse is the space that separates a dendrite or axon from another cell.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 15 Mar. 2023
  • There are cases in development where axons grow out of a neuron.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 5 Dec. 2024
  • Along with blood vessel damage, injury to axons is what leaves us with lingering symptoms.
    — Erin Kirkland, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Jan. 2018
  • Each axon connects with the dendrites of tens of thousands of Purkinje cells.
    — Rebecca Boyle, Quanta Magazine, 24 Jan. 2024
  • This protein is engineered to bind to the RNA bar code so that the tag, too, is dragged along the axon.
    — Simon Makin, Scientific American, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Humans may also soon enter the competition for the most extreme axon stretch growth.
    — Jeffrey M. Rodgers, Scientific American, 29 Sep. 2022
  • The axon from one spinal cord motor neuron branches and makes a small cluster of muscle fibers contract together.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Scientists have long known those signals move from one neuron along fibers called axons and dendrites, using synapses to jump to the next neuron.
    — CBS News, 9 Apr. 2025
  • The axon translates raw brain signals from the node into standard commands that work with any Bluetooth device.
    — Q.ai - Powering A Personal Wealth Movement, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2023
  • These cells, particularly the long axons of motor neurons, can stretch from the spinal cord to the tips of toes, approaching five feet in length.
    — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The space between an axon terminal and a dendrite, where chemical signals are deposited and picked up, is called a synapse.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 1 Feb. 2022
  • In the remaining five mice, the researchers tested a method using viruses to measure the full length of nerve projections known as axons.
    — Nora Bradford, Scientific American, 27 Aug. 2025
  • That may or may not result in a spike, or action potential, going out on the neuron’s axon to the dendrites of post-synaptic neurons.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 Feb. 2021
  • In a similar way, the branching of axons and dendrites from neurons also obeys local growth principles.
    — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 31 July 2017
  • This is an important finding because squid nerve cells are immense, with axons sometimes stretching several feet long.
    — Eric Niiler, Wired, 24 Mar. 2020
  • These axons, during a normal part of development, might decide to start retracting.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 5 Dec. 2024
  • Then, once the voltage reaches a specific threshold, a pulse is fired along organic amplifiers that mimic a nerve cell axon.
    — Karen Hopkin, Scientific American, 30 June 2022
  • In fact, there are 774 motor axons—the long fibers stretching out from neurons in the spinal cord—that control all the muscle fibers in our biceps.
    — R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Nerves, in turn, are made up of bundles of axons, the individual filaments that transmit signals throughout the body.
    — Tony Dajer, Discover Magazine, 13 June 2024
  • Indeed, every 3-cm increase in axon length is calculated to add more than double the volume of the neuronal cell body to the axon each day.
    — Jeffrey M. Rodgers, Scientific American, 29 Sep. 2022
  • Besides bruising and swelling, researchers believe that force can cause the brain to elongate, stretching nerve cells and their axons — fiber-like parts that transmit messages between cells.
    — Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2017
  • When a neuron fires, an electrochemical spike travels down the neuron’s axon and crosses synapses to other neurons.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2017
  • Mice that already had amyloid pathology developed neuritic plaque tau, the axon-damaging form of the protein.
    — Jason Ulrich, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Information for both signals can be encoded in the spikes of electrical activity that the neuron sends down its axon as an output.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 Feb. 2021
  • Fascinatingly, a neuron’s cell body can measure a tenth of a millimeter across, while its axons can stretch more than 3 feet in length, as in the leg’s sciatic nerve.
    — Tony Dajer, Discover Magazine, 13 June 2024
  • One set of axons projected to the periacqueductal gray in the midbrain, an area involved in motor behaviors.
    — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 11 Apr. 2018
  • After 90 days, axons — the nerve fibers that carry neurons’ outgoing messages — had connected with host neurons.
    — Lacy Schley, Discover Magazine, 15 Jan. 2019
  • The main body of the neuron conveys those pulses to an outgoing arm, or axon, which splits into numerous branches, each of which nearly touches other neurons.
    — Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 25 Mar. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'axon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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