Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Anatomy Of, toward, on, in, or near the back or upper surface of an organ, part, or organism.
- adj. Botany Of or on the outer surface, underside, or back of an organ.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In anatomy: Of or pertaining to the back: as, the dorsal fin of a fish; dorsal muscles, nerves, etc.
- Of or pertaining to the back of a part or organ: as, the dorsal aspect of the hand; the dorsal surface of the breast-bone; the dorsal artery of the penis.
- In entomology, pertaining to the upper surface of the thorax or abdomen.
- n. In ichthyology, a dorsal fin.
- n. In anatomy, a dorsal vertebra.
- n. Eccles. See the extract.
- In phonology, pronounced with the back or middle upper surface of the tongue raised to the palate.
- In botany, relating to the back of an organ. See back, 3 (A).
Wiktionary
- adj. anatomy With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.
- adj. of a knife Having only one sharp side.
- adj. anatomy The top surface of foot and/or hand.
- n. art A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, altar, etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Anat.) Pertaining to, or situated near, the back, or dorsum, of an animal or of one of its parts; notal; tergal; neural; ; -- opposed to
ventral . - adj. Pertaining to the surface naturally inferior, as of a leaf.
- adj. Pertaining to the surface naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss.
- n. (Fine Arts) A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, or of an altar, or in any similar position.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. belonging to or on or near the back or upper surface of an animal or organ or part
- adj. facing away from the axis of an organ or organism
Etymologies
- From Latin dorsālis ("of or relating to the back"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Late Latin dorsālis, from Latin dorsuālis, from dorsum, back. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They are shockingly gracile and incredibly long-bodied, with a shape that (when seen in dorsal view) has been likened to that of a champagne flute.”
“A technique called flavoprotein autofluorescence was used to image a part of their brain called the dorsal cochlear nucleus DCN, which is associated with tinnitus.”
The Wall Street Journal: Finding the Pathways to a Cause of Tinnitus
“The scientists discovered that a critical mental control area, called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, worked much harder and, perhaps, less efficiently among children with attention problems.”
The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Probe Role of Brain in ADHD Cases
“I think you mistakenly called the dorsal stream the what pathway - it is the where pathway a typo, I'm sure.”
“Above the gills, it is collected by six more pairs of blood vessels into another big vessel running down the middle, called the dorsal aorta, which feeds the rest of the body.”
“Every segment of the vertebral column has two big nerves sprouting from the spinal cord on either side, called the dorsal root and the ventral root.”
“When they encounter a stimulus, such as a pinprick, they send a message through trunk cables to a part of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn.”
“Through the nerve trunk to which the nerve endings belong the irritation spreads and is transmitted to the spinal cord by the dorsal roots of the nerves to the area which is known as the dorsal horns of the cord.”
“In the latter we find the moving agent to be a long tube, which runs the whole length of the back, and is called the dorsal vessel (from the Latin _dorsum_, back).”
The History of a Mouthful of Bread And its effect on the organization of men and animals
“Reward circuits in a brain region called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex also lit up.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dorsal’.
-
SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
-
A Galimafrée of Plant Anatomy & Morph...
A hodgepodge, jumble, jambalaya, *gallimaufry, circus and tent revival of plant anatomy and morphology terms and phrases - its a big tent, and no tickets are required.
*array, collecti...naked bud, leaf blade, brochidodromous, serrate, cork cambium, rhizomatous, flower stalk, deciduous sepal, petal, whorl, nectar gland, stamen and 1348 more...
-
dorsi-, dorso-
of, to, or on the back
-
Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
-
Physical anthropology
acclimatization, adriatic, aegyptid, aeta, aethiopid, africoid, ainuid, aistin, alae, alare, albino, allele and 202 more...
-
Human Anatomy
Terms relating to the human body, primarily in osteology.
humerus, scapula, ulna, radius, maxilla, mandible, mandible, occipital bone, parietal bone, frontal bone, tibia, talus and 104 more...
-
Lolita
Words to remember from Nabokov's "Lolita"
lurid, limned, concordance, puerility, variorum, perspicacious, exigency, acrostic, solipsism, mnemosyne, involution, fatidic and 227 more...
-
Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
-
random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
-
SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL D
dais, dalliance, dank, daunt, daunting, dawdled, dearth, debacle, debase, debauchery, debilitate, debonair and 141 more...
-
Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
-
ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
-
Vocabulary
My ever expanding vocabulary...
feuterer, abattoir, kibosh, sequin, shiftless, scrimshanker, sic, moniker, dogsbody, contranym, autoantonym, exhortation and 306 more...
-
Anatomy
Words pertaining to the human body, its form, functions, and movements.
rump, axilla, nates, wick, dorsal, shank, coccyx, iliac, haunch, oculate, priapic, tumescent and 9 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dorsal.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.