A spiral, snail-shaped part of the inner ear that converts sound vibrations into nerve signals your brain can understand.
From Latin cochlea (snail, spiral shell), derived from Greek kogkhē (shell, mussel). The anatomical term refers to the organ's spiral shape, resembling a snail shell.
Your cochlea is a tiny marvel—it's only as big as a grain of rice but contains 16,000 hair cells that can detect frequencies from a whisper to a chainsaw and send that information to your brain in milliseconds!
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