What is "pterygoid process"

Pterygoid \Pter"y*goid\, a. [Gr. ?, ?, a wing + -oid.] (Anat.)

1. Like a bird's wing in form; as, a pterygoid bone.

2. Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the pterygoid bones, pterygoid processes, or the whole sphenoid bone. -- n. A pterygoid bone.

   Pterygoid bone (Anat.), a bone which corresponds to the inner plate of the pterygoid process of the human skull, but which, in all vertebrates below mammals, is not connected with the posterior nares, but serves to connect the palatine bones with the point of suspension of the lower jaw.

   Pterygoid process (Anat.), a process projecting downward from either side of the sphenoid bone, in man divided into two plates, an inner and an outer. The posterior nares pass through the space, called the pterygoid fossa, between the processes.

n. two bony processes descending from the body of the sphenoid bone