noun
also olfactory
( -es )
: either of the first pair of cranial nerves, being a sensory nerve, arising from the olfactory cells as discrete bundles of nonmedullated fibers that pass in small groups (in man, about 20) through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid and terminate in the olfactory bulb, and serving to conduct sensory stimuli from the olfactory organ to the brain