noun
: one of the cells that constitute nervous tissue, that have the property of transmitting and receiving nervous impulses, and that are typically composed in higher animals and man of somewhat reddish or grayish protoplasm with a large nucleus containing a conspicuous nucleolus, irregular cytoplasmic granules, and cytoplasmic processes which are highly differentiated as frequently multiple dendrites or usually solitary axons and which conduct impulses toward and away from the nerve cell body : neuron ; sometimes : a nerve cell body exclusive of its processes : the major structural element of the gray matter of the brain and spinal cord, the ganglia, and the retina