Word.ws English Dictionary

piloerector

piloerector noun: a muscle responsible for piloerection.

Noun

piloerector (plural piloerectors)

  1. A muscle responsible for piloerection.
    • Nor should we neglect that quintessentially mammalian trait, our hair, which, at the behest of tiny piloerector muscles at the base of each strand, can puff up to trap pockets of still air, one of the finest insulators known.2007 February 20, Natalie Angier, “A Mammal in Winter With a Furnace of Her Own”, in New York Times

Forms of piloerector

pluralpiloerectors

Origin of piloerector

From pilo- + erector.

Questions about piloerector

What does piloerector mean?
Piloerector means a muscle responsible for piloerection.
What part of speech is piloerector?
Piloerector is a noun.
What is the plural of piloerector?
The plural of piloerector is piloerectors.

Words near piloerector in the dictionary

  1. piloerect
  2. piloerected
  3. piloerecting
  4. piloerection
  5. piloerections
  6. piloerector
  7. piloerectors
  8. piloerects
  9. pilogenesis
  10. piloi
  11. piloid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: piloerector (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: “piloerector.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piloerector. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.