ˈret ə nə sometimes -tnə noun
( plural retinas -əz ; or reti·nae - ə nˌē)
Etymology: Middle English rethina, from Medieval Latin retina, probably from Latin rete net; akin to Greek erēmos desolate, lonely, Lithuanian rėtis sieve, Old Slavic oriti to loosen, Sanskrit ṛte without, except; basic meaning: loose
: the sensory membrane that lines most of the large posterior chamber of the vertebrate eye, receives the image formed by the lens, is the immediate instrument of vision, is connected to the brain by the optic nerve, and consists essentially of supporting and protective structures, nervous elements, and sensory end organs arranged in several layers of which the sensory layer composed of small rodlike bodies interspersed with shorter conical bodies both of which are the specialized terminal parts of neuroepithelial cells is one of the outermost — see cone , fovea , macula lutea , rod