synapse

/ˌsɪnˈæps/

Other forms: synapses

A synapse is the tiny gap across which a nerve cell, or neuron, can send an impulse to another neuron. When all your synapses are firing, you're focused and your mind feels electric.

Synapse is not an old word. It was coined in an 1897 physiology textbook, from the Greek sun- "together" + haptein "join" — it’s the space across which nerve cells can "join together" to communicate from one cell to the next or from a neuron to a muscle. When a chemical or electrical impulse makes that tiny leap across one of your synapses, which you have throughout your nervous system, your body can do what your brain tells it to do.

Definitions of synapse

1. noun

   the junction between two neurons (axon-to-dendrite) or between a neuron and a muscle
   “nerve impulses cross a synapse through the action of neurotransmitters”

   types:

   myoneural junction, neuromuscular junction

   the junction between a nerve fiber and the muscle it supplies

   type of:

   colligation, conjugation, conjunction, junction

   the state of being joined together