frontal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front: a frontal attack.
2. adj. Anatomy Of or relating to the forehead or frontal bone.
3. adj. Anatomy Of or relating to the frontal plane.
4. adj. Of or relating to a meteorological front.
5. n. A drapery covering the front of an altar.
6. n. The façade of a building.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Being in front.
2. Of or pertaining to the forehead or frons, or to the bone of the forehead: as, the frontal crest of a bird; frontal plates of a reptile.
3. In entomology See clypeal suture, under clypeal.
4. n. Something worn on the forehead or face; a frontlet. An ornamental band for the hair.
5. n. Something that comes or is situated in front; a front piece or part, as (formerly) the valance of a bed.
6. n. Specifically In heraldry: The front of anything, as of a helmet or a cap.
7. n. The forehead, as of a human head, used as a bearing.
8. n. In architecture, a little pediment or frontispiece over a small door or window.
9. n. Eccles.: A movable cover or hanging for the front of an altar. Frontals are of silk, satin, damask, or other material, and are made of different colors for the different festivals and seasons of the church year. Sometimes they cover not only the front but the ends of the altar; this was usual in the middle ages. Over the upper part of the frontal falls another shorter hanging, also reaching the whole width of the altar, and along the ends. This is now commonly called the superfrontal (formerly the frontel or frontlet), and is attached to one of the three linen cloths on the mensa or to the frontal, concealing the edge of the altar. Also called front, and by the Latin names antependium, palla, and pallium.
10. n. In England, in the middle ages, also a movable cover of wood or precious metal for the front of the altar. Such a frontal was sometimes called a table (also tabula, tablementum).
11. n. In medicine, a medicament or preparation to be applied to the forehead.
12. n. In anatomy and zoology, the frontal bone; the bone of the forehead. In its primitive state it consists of a pair of bones, being developed from lateral paired centers of ossification in the membranous cranium. It attains great comparative size in birds. See cuts under Anura, Balænidæ, Crocodilia, Cyclodus, Gallinæ, parasphenoid, and skull.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front: a frontal attack.
2. adj. anatomy Of or relating to the forehead or frontal bone.
3. adj. anatomy Of or relating to the frontal plane.
4. adj. Of or relating to a weather front.
5. n. A drapery covering the front of an altar.
6. n. The façade of a building.
7. n. anatomy The bone at the front of the skull, behind the forehead.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Anat.) Belonging to the front part; being in front. Of or pertaining to the forehead or the anterior part of the roof of the brain case.
2. n. Something worn on the forehead or face; a frontlet.
3. n. An ornamental band for the hair.
4. n. (Mil.) The metal face guard of a soldier.
5. n. (Arch.) A little pediment over a door or window.
6. n. (Eccl.) A movable, decorative member in metal, carved wood, or, commonly, in rich stuff or in embroidery, covering the front of the altar. Frontals are usually changed according to the different ceremonies.
7. n. (Med.), obsolete A medicament or application for the forehead.
8. n. (Anat.) The frontal bone, or one of the two frontal bones, of the cranium.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. belonging to the front part
2. n. an adornment worn on the forehead
3. n. a drapery that covers the front of an altar
4. n. the face or front of a building
5. adj. of or relating to the front of an advancing mass of air
6. adj. of or adjacent to the forehead or frontal bone
7. adj. meeting front to front