noun
also taste bulb or taste goblet
: an end organ mediating the sensation of taste, lying chiefly in the epithelium of the tongue and especially in the walls of the vallate papillae, and consisting of a conical or flask-shaped mass made up partly of supporting cells and partly of neuroepithelial sensory cells that terminate peripherally in short hairlike processes which project into the pore in the overlying epithelium and by which communication with the mouth cavity is effected