dorsal

dorsal
    adj 1: belonging to or on or near the back or upper surface of
           an animal or organ or part; "the dorsal fin is the
           vertical fin on the back of a fish and certain marine
           mammals" [ant: {ventral}]
    2: facing away from the axis of an organ or organism; "the
       abaxial surface of a leaf is the underside or side facing
       away from the stem" [syn: {abaxial}, {dorsal}] [ant:
       {adaxial}, {ventral}]
    

Neural \Neu"ral\, a. [Gr. ney^ron nerve.] (Anat. & Zool.)
   relating to the nerves or nervous system; taining to,
   situated in the region of, or on the side with, the neural,
   or cerebro-spinal, axis; -- opposed to {hemal}. As applied to
   vertebrates, neural is the same as {dorsal}; as applied to
   invertebrates it is usually the same as ventral. Cf. {Hemal}.
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   {Neural arch} (Anat.), the cartilaginous or bony arch on the
      dorsal side of the centrum of the vertebra in a segment of
      the spinal skeleton, usually inclosing a segment of the
      spinal cord.
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Posterior \Pos*te"ri*or\ (p[o^]s*t[=e]"r[i^]*[~e]r), a. [L.
   posterior, compar. of posterus coming after, from post after.
   See {Post-}.]
   1. Later in time; hence, later in the order of proceeding or
      moving; coming after; -- opposed to {prior}.
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            Hesiod was posterior to Homer.        --Broome.
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   2. Situated behind; hinder; -- opposed to {anterior}.
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   3. (Anat.) At or toward the caudal extremity; caudal; -- in
      human anatomy often used for {dorsal}.
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   4. (Bot.) On the side next the axis of inflorescence; -- said
      of an axillary flower. --Gray.
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Dorsal \Dor"sal\, n. [LL. dorsale, neut. fr. dorsalis. See
   {Dorsal}, a.] (Fine Arts)
   A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, or
   of an altar, or in any similar position.
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Dorsal \Dor"sal\, a. [F. dorsal, LL. dorsalis, fr. L. dorsualis,
   fr. dorsum back; cf. Gr. ?, ?, mountain ridge. Cf. {Dorse},
   {Dorsel}, {Dosel}.]
   1. (Anat.) Pertaining to, or situated near, the back, or
      dorsum, of an animal or of one of its parts; notal;
      tergal; neural; as, the dorsal fin of a fish; the dorsal
      artery of the tongue; -- opposed to {ventral}.
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   2. (Bot.)
      (a) Pertaining to the surface naturally inferior, as of a
          leaf.
      (b) Pertaining to the surface naturally superior, as of a
          creeping hepatic moss.
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   {Dorsal vessel} (Zool.), a central pulsating blood vessel
      along the back of insects, acting as a heart.
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94 Moby Thesaurus words for "dorsal":
      accented, alveolar, apical, apico-alveolar, apico-dental,
      articulated, assimilated, back, barytone, bilabial, broad,
      cacuminal, central, cerebral, checked, close, consonant,
      consonantal, continuant, dental, dissimilated, flat, front, glide,
      glossal, glottal, gluteal, guttural, hard, heavy, high, intonated,
      labial, labiodental, labiovelar, lateral, lax, light, lingual,
      liquid, low, lumbar, mid, monophthongal, muted, narrow, nasal,
      nasalized, occipital, occlusive, open, oxytone, palatal,
      palatalized, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic, phonetic,
      phonic, pitch, pitched, posterial, posttonic, retral, retroflex,
      rounded, sciatic, semivowel, soft, sonant, stopped, stressed,
      strong, surd, syllabic, tense, tergal, thick, throaty, tonal,
      tonic, twangy, unaccented, unrounded, unstressed, velar, vocalic,
      vocoid, voiced, voiceless, vowel, vowellike, weak, wide