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What is "middle ear"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
middle ear
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An inflammation in the middle ear called otitis media can cause temporary or even permanent hearing loss.
▪ In fact, an ear infection alone can cause sudden severe pain as fluid builds up in the middle ear.
▪ Mean hearing thresholds are related mainly to the presence or absence of fluid in the middle ear.
▪ Microtympanometry, a sensitive method of diagnosing effusions of the middle ear, could help them in this.
▪ There is further evidence that untreated middle ear disease in childhood may have permanent effects.
▪ Three rats in the low fibre diet group suffered from middle ear infections and were removed from the study.
▪ Vibrations or sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate and these vibrations move through the middle ear to the inner ear.
▪ When the cause of deafness is not solely in the outer and/or middle ear, high frequencies are likely to be affected.
Wiktionary
middle ear

n. (context anatomy English) The cavity in the temporal bone between the eardrum and the inner ear that contains the ossicles, and which conveys sound to the cochlea.

WordNet
middle ear

n. the main cavity of the ear; between the eardrum and the inner ear [syn: tympanic cavity, tympanum]

Wikipedia
Middle ear

The middle ear is the portion of the ear internal to the eardrum, and external to the oval window of the inner ear. Also the mammalian middle ear contains three ossicles, which transfer the vibrations of the eardrum into waves in the fluid and membranes of the inner ear. The hollow space of the middle ear is also known as the tympanic cavity. The auditory tube (also known as the Eustachian tube or the pharyngotympanic tube) joins the tympanic cavity with the nasal cavity ( nasopharynx), allowing pressure to equalize between the middle ear and throat.

The primary function of the middle ear is to efficiently transfer acoustic energy from compression waves in air to fluid–membrane waves within the cochlea.

Usage examples of "middle ear".

The whole structure from the tympanum to this small opening, including the tympanic cavity and the ossicles, is called the middle ear.

For in the ear the sound-waves are first of all taken over by the so-called ossicles, three small bones in the middle ear which, when examined with the Goethean eye, appear to be a complete metamorphosis of ah arm or a leg.

Then a thin bamboo skewer was tapped into his ear canal, perforating his ear drum and destroying the nerves in his middle ear.

The world swam, his middle ear thingie was no doubt still spinning like a roulette ball.

Even where he sat, six floors up, the tinny, carping voice reached his middle ear.

Inflammation of the middle ear is not uncommon following influenza, an aftermath is depression, which may even amount to melancholia.

Now there was nothing, there was not even the opposite pressure of his seatbelt on his stomach, the vestibular apparatus in his middle ear was stubbornly insisting that he was falling, his stomach was floating, twisting, turning, fluid was churning, sloshing, lapping at the base of his esophagus, his stomach muscles were clenching, now slowly, now faster, his mouth began to water, and.

A better analogy might be the sense of touch, that complicated constellation of reactions that includes sensitivity to heat and pressure, headache and nausea, the elevator feelings of rising or falling, and balance controls through the liquid of the middle ear&mdash.