noun
: any one of the loop-shaped tubular parts of the membranous labyrinth of the ear that together constitute a sensory organ associated with the maintenance of bodily equilibrium, each canal communicating by either end with the utriculus, having near one end an expanded ampulla that contains an area of sensory epithelium, being enclosed in a corresponding canal of the bony labyrinth, and in all vertebrates above cyclostomes forming one of a group of three in each ear usually in planes nearly at right angles with one another