labyrinth

Pronunciation: lab′i-rinth

Definition:

1. The internal or inner ear, composed of the semicircular ducts, vestibule, and cochlea.
2. Any group of communicating cavities, as in each lateral mass of the ethmoid bone.
3. A group of upright test tubes terminating below in a base of communicating, alternately ⊔-shaped and ⊓-shaped tubes, used for isolating motile from nonmotile organisms in culture, or a motile from a less motile organism (as the typhoid from the colon bacillus), the former traveling faster and farther through the tubes than the latter.

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