Word.ws English Dictionary

mystacial

/mɪsˈteɪʃəl/

mystacial adjective: having a fringe of hairs suggestive of a moustache.

Adjective

mystacial (not comparable)

  1. Having a fringe of hairs suggestive of a moustache.
  2. Pertaining to the area around the vibrissae on either side of the muzzle of a mammal such as a rodent or cat.
    • The mystacial pads are large and fleshy, extending beyond the nostrils.1993, Thomas A. Jefferson, Stephen Leatherwood, Marc A. Webber, Marine Mammals of the World, →ISBN, page 282
    • The vibrissal system of the rat is an example of active tactile sensing, and has recently been used as a prototype in construction of touch-oriented robots. Active vibrissal exploration and touch are enabled and controlled by musculature of the mystacial pad.2012, Issues in Anatomy, Physiology, Metabolism, Morphology, and Human Biology, →ISBN

Noun

mystacial (plural mystacials)

  1. Any of the large rigid whiskers (vibrissae) that appear on the fleshy pads on either side of the muzzle of an animal such as a cat or rodent.
    • During the third week, the mystacials and ulnarcarpals are the first to form.
    • Pocock (1926, pp. 1040-41) described the facial vibrissae in the adult animal and he too found that the mystacials are greatly reduced in number and length, a condition which is common to all the ant-eating mammals (Pocock, 1914).1959, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, page 94

Examples of mystacial in a sentence

  • Harbor seals use their mystacial vibrissae in a cold environment.2012, Peter J. Snow, Peter Wilson, Plasticity in the Somatosensory System of Developing and Mature Mammals, →ISBN, page 150:
  • In group I (anatomic study group, n=8), Lewis rats were subject to harvesting technique trialing and the mystacial vascular network was drawn2015, Maria Z. Siemionow, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, →ISBN:
  • The superciliary whiskers above the eyes and the genal whiskers on the cheeks are less rigid and distinctly less mobile than the mystacials.1999, Wild Discovery Guide to Your Cat:

Forms of mystacial

pluralmystacials

Origin of mystacial

From Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax) + -ial. Compare moustachial.

Questions about mystacial

What does mystacial mean?
Mystacial means having a fringe of hairs suggestive of a moustache.
How do you use mystacial in a sentence?
Harbor seals use their mystacial vibrissae in a cold environment.
What part of speech is mystacial?
Mystacial can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce mystacial?
Mystacial is pronounced /mɪsˈteɪʃəl/.

Words near mystacial in the dictionary

  1. myspaces
  2. myspacing
  3. MySQLer
  4. MySQLers
  5. mystacal
  6. mystacial
  7. mystacials
  8. mystacinid
  9. mystacinids
  10. mystacocarid
  11. mystacocarids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mystacial (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mystacial.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mystacial.wav.

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