A <neurite> is an extension from a <neuron>'s <soma>, used especially when the process has not yet been identified as an <axon> or a <dendrite>. This neutral term is useful in <developmental biology>: an early process need not already have the mature molecular composition or signaling role of either compartment.

Repeated imaging of individual cultured <hippocampus> <neurons> showed several initially similar <neurites>, followed by rapid elongation of one future <axon> and later differentiation of the other processes into <dendrites>. Shape at a single early time point therefore need not settle eventual identity.<The establishment of polarity by hippocampal neurons in culture by Carlos G. Dotti and others>[Abstract and sequential observations, pp. 1454–1468]{ref}


 Neurite (source code)