pterygoid

Of, relating to, or located in the region of the sphenoid bone.

Resembling a wing; winglike.

Either of two processes descending from the body of the sphenoid bone.

Wing-like or wing-shaped; aliform or alate: specifically applied in anatomy to certain bones or bony processes and associate parts.

The external pterygoid process is a process or extension of the alisphenoid, or great, wing of the sphenoid bone, having no independent center of ossification, and never being a distinct part.

The internal pterygoid process, on the other hand, is a distinct bone, the pterygoid proper, having its own center of ossification, and representing the freely articulated pterygoid bone of lower vertebrates. These processes are also distinguished as ectopterygoid and entopterygoid.

The combined internal and external pterygoid processes, the two parts being distinguished as the internal and external pterygoid plates.

The pyramidal process, or tuberosity of the palate.

In zoology and anatomy: A bone of the facial part of the skull, forming a part of the hard palate, or pterygopalatal bar, commonly a horizontal rod-like bone, one of a pair on each side of the median line intervening between the palatal and the quadrate bone, or suspensorium of the mandible, and movably articulated with both, frequently also articulating with the basisphenoidal rostrum of the skull: in any mammal, detached from its posterior connection with the suspensorium, and commonly immovably sutured with the palatal and ankylosed with the sphenoid, when it forms the part known in human anatomy as the internal pterygoid process of the sphenoid.

A pterygoid muscle.