Word.ws English Dictionary

Duchenne smile

Duchenne smile noun: a smile involving contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi (which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes).

duchenne smile: a smile involving contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the...
Image: Eric McGregor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Duchenne smile (plural Duchenne smiles)

  1. A smile involving contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi (which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes).

Forms of Duchenne smile

pluralDuchenne smiles

Origin of Duchenne smile

Named after the French physician Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne (1806–1875) who identified it.

Questions about Duchenne smile

What does Duchenne smile mean?
Duchenne smile means a smile involving contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi (which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes).
What part of speech is Duchenne smile?
Duchenne smile is a noun.
What is the plural of Duchenne smile?
The plural of Duchenne smile is Duchenne smiles.

Words near Duchenne smile in the dictionary

  1. Duchene
  2. Ducheneaux
  3. Duchenes
  4. Duchenne
  5. Duchenne muscular dystrophy
  6. Duchenne smile
  7. Duchenne smiles
  8. Duchenne-Aran disease
  9. Duchesne
  10. Duchesne County
  11. Duchesnean

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Duchenne smile (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Duchenne smile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duchenne_smile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.