The Short Answer: Your Glabella Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The glabella is the smooth area of your forehead located between your eyebrows and just above the bridge of your nose. Pronounced gluh-BEL-uh, it can refer to the visible skin or the underlying part of the frontal bone. In other words, you have been carrying a glabella around your entire life.
Where Exactly Is the Glabella?
Look in a mirror and find the inner ends of your eyebrows. Now focus on the patch of skin between them, immediately above the top of your nose.
That is your glabella.
Despite the common description, it is not technically an empty “space.” It is a small anatomical region in the center of the face. Depending on the context, glabella may describe the skin and soft tissue you can touch or the bony landmark underneath them.
The Cambridge Dictionary definition of glabella calls it the smooth part in the center of the forehead above and between the eyebrows. Anatomists also use the term for a point on the frontal bone between the two brow ridges.
And yes, your glabella remains your glabella even if you have a unibrow. The name refers to the location, not your eyebrow-grooming decisions.
How Do You Pronounce “Glabella”?
Glabella is usually pronounced:
gluh-BEL-uh
The stress falls on the middle syllable: BEL.
The related adjective is glabellar, pronounced approximately gluh-BEL-er. Doctors might discuss a glabellar muscle, glabellar line, glabellar reflex, or glabellar injury.
If you somehow need to discuss several of them, the traditional plural is glabellae, often pronounced gluh-BEL-ee. This situation is unlikely to arise unless you are teaching anatomy, studying skulls, or attending the world’s most specialized eyebrow convention.
Here is the vocabulary at a glance:
- Glabella: the area between the eyebrows and above the nose
- Glabellar: relating to the glabella
- Glabellae: more than one glabella
Why Is It Called a Glabella?
The word has roots in Latin. It comes from glabellus, meaning smooth or hairless, which is related to glaber, meaning smooth, bald, or without hair.
That makes glabella essentially a name for a “little smooth area.” It is a sensible description because the region normally interrupts the two eyebrows and creates a relatively bare patch in the middle.
Of course, human hair does not always follow the vocabulary manual. Some eyebrows grow close together or meet completely, producing what is commonly called a unibrow. In that case, the supposedly hairless glabella may be wearing a small furry disguise.
The word appeared in English anatomical use during the early 19th century, although its Latin relatives are much older. Its history also connects it to glabrous, an adjective used in biology and anatomy to mean smooth or lacking hair.
What Is Under Your Glabella?
Your glabella may look like a simple patch of forehead, but several structures help create its shape and movement.
Under the skin lie the frontal bone and a group of facial muscles involved in frowning, squinting, concentrating, and making the expression that says, “You paid how much for that?”
Two especially important muscles are:
- Corrugator supercilii: pulls the eyebrows inward and downward, helping create vertical lines between them
- Procerus: pulls the skin in the central brow area downward and can contribute to horizontal wrinkles near the top of the nose
These muscles are small, but they are expressive. They help the face communicate concentration, worry, confusion, annoyance, suspicion, and other emotions that frequently appear during meetings.
The underlying bone is also useful as a fixed anatomical reference point. In skull measurement and facial analysis, the glabella marks a central point on the frontal bone between the brow ridges. Anatomists, surgeons, anthropologists, and other specialists can use it when describing proportions or comparing measurements.
Why Do Lines Form Across the Glabella?
The vertical creases that appear between the eyebrows are often called glabellar lines. Informally, they are sometimes nicknamed “11 lines” because two prominent wrinkles can resemble the number 11.
These lines initially appear when the corrugator muscles pull the eyebrows together. You might notice them while:
- Frowning
- Squinting in bright light
- Reading small text
- Concentrating intensely
- Trying to understand an unnecessarily complicated parking sign
- Silently judging someone’s choice of pizza topping
When the face relaxes, the lines may disappear. Over time, however, repeated facial movement combined with changes in skin elasticity can make them remain visible even at rest. Sun exposure and other factors affecting the skin may make them more noticeable.
Horizontal creases can also form lower in the region, near the top of the nose. These are more closely associated with movement of the procerus muscle. Together, the wrinkles help make the glabella one of the most emotionally active pieces of facial real estate.
What Is the Glabellar Reflex?
The glabella also gives its name to a neurological response called the glabellar reflex or glabellar tap reflex.
During a clinical examination, a healthcare professional may gently tap the glabella several times. Most people blink in response to the first few taps, then stop blinking as the nervous system becomes accustomed to the repeated stimulus. This process is known as habituation.
Persistent blinking may be called Myerson’s sign and can appear in association with certain neurological conditions. However, the response must be evaluated correctly and in context. It is not a stand-alone diagnosis, and repeatedly poking a friend between the eyebrows does not qualify as a neurological examination.
The NCBI overview of primitive reflexes explains how clinicians perform and interpret the glabellar tap as one small part of a broader assessment.
Surprise: Trilobites Had Glabellae Too
Humans do not have exclusive rights to the word glabella. Paleontologists use it when describing trilobites, the extinct marine arthropods famous for leaving behind wonderfully detailed fossils.
On a trilobite, the glabella is the raised central region of the head, or cephalon. It sits between areas known as the cheeks and can vary considerably in size and shape among species.
The British Geological Survey’s guide to trilobites identifies the glabella as a major part of trilobite head anatomy. Its shape can help paleontologists describe and classify fossils.
Why use the same word for a human forehead feature and part of a prehistoric arthropod? Both are smooth or raised central regions of the head. Anatomical vocabulary loves recycling a good descriptive term.
So if anyone asks whether a trilobite had eyebrows, the answer is no—but it did have a glabella. Evolution can be surprisingly committed to terminology.
Glabella, Philtrum, Lunula: The Secret Names on Your Body
The glabella belongs to a delightful class of words that name familiar features most people never think to label. Once you learn them, your body begins to sound less like a person and more like an elaborate antique machine.
A few excellent examples include:
- Philtrum: the vertical groove between your nose and upper lip
- Lunula: the pale crescent at the base of a fingernail
- Canthus: either corner where the upper and lower eyelids meet
- Tragus: the small projection of cartilage in front of the ear canal
- Hallux: the anatomical name for the big toe
The same naming habit extends beyond the body. Even the tiny dot above a lowercase i or j has a name: it is a tittle.
These words are satisfying because they reveal how thoroughly humans have examined and categorized the world. If a thing has a shape, position, purpose, or tendency to appear on an anatomy test, someone has probably named it.
How to Use “Glabella” in a Sentence
Glabella is a specialized word, but it is easy to use once your audience knows what it means.
She rubbed her glabella while trying to solve the puzzle.
The makeup artist applied a small amount of highlighter to the glabella.
His glabellar lines deepened whenever someone said, “Can I ask a quick favor?”
The anatomist used the glabella as a reference point during the measurement.
In ordinary conversation, “between the eyebrows” will usually be clearer. But glabella is perfect for anatomy discussions, precise descriptions, trivia nights, character writing, and moments when your vocabulary needs to raise an eyebrow.
A Small Patch With an Impressive Résumé
The glabella is the central area between your eyebrows, just above the nose. Its name comes from a Latin word associated with smoothness or hairlessness, and it can refer both to the visible surface of the forehead and the bony landmark beneath it.
It helps shape facial expressions, lends its name to wrinkles and a neurological reflex, assists with anatomical measurements, and even appears in descriptions of trilobite fossils. That is a remarkable amount of work for an area small enough to cover with one fingertip.
The next time you frown, squint, or stare suspiciously at an unfamiliar word, remember: your glabella is right in the middle of the action.