mammary
Meaning of mammary: Mammary structures and glands are those of the breast, most notably the tissue responsible for producing milk during lactation.
Definition of mammary
Mammary means relating to the breast, and the word is most often used to describe the mammary gland, the tissue within the breast responsible for producing milk during lactation. The mammary gland is made up of a network of lobules that produce milk and ducts that carry it toward the nipple.
The term appears throughout anatomy in phrases such as mammary tissue, mammary duct, and internal mammary artery, a blood vessel that runs along the inside of the chest wall and is sometimes used in heart bypass surgery, illustrating that mammary is not limited to describing glandular tissue alone.
In oncology, mammary is used in describing breast tissue and its associated structures during the evaluation and staging of breast conditions, including benign changes as well as cancer, since accurately describing the tissue and its location is part of a complete assessment.
How mammary is built
- mamm/o, mast/o Combining form · Latin and Greek breast
- -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic Suffix · Greek and Latin pertaining to, relating to
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
The surgical report described dissection along the internal mammary vessels during the bypass procedure.
Good to know
Mammary refers broadly to breast-related structures and is not itself a diagnosis; a mammary finding still requires further characterization to determine whether it is a normal variant, a benign process, or a malignant one.
Word origin
Where “mammary” comes from
From Latin mamma, meaning "breast."