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The most famous use of dorsal is with fin, whether it conjures the ominous dorsal fin of sharks or the benign, even benevolent, image of porpoises and dolphins. Less well-known is the botanical sense of dorsal, meaning "facing away from the axis or stem" (thus the underside of a leaf can be the dorsal side), or the linguistic sense referring to articulations made with the back part of the tongue (\k\ and \g\, for example). Dorsal can be used of non-living things too (in particular, the backs of airplanes), as can its opposite, ventral, which means "relating to the belly." Dorsal descends from Latin dorsum ("back"), which also gave us dossier (via French, for a bundle of documents labeled on the back) and reredos ("an ornamental screen or partition wall behind an altar").
Examples of dorsal in a Sentence
Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
For example, a ray's wing or a dolphin's dorsal could look like a shark fin when sticking out of the water.
—Skyler Caruso, Peoplemag, 3 Aug. 2023
There are risks associated with selective dorsal rhizotomy, most commonly ongoing numbness in the legs after the operation, but the benefits may outweigh the risks for many people.
—Lauren Sieben, SELF, 22 Mar. 2022
The dorsal section plays a role in distinguishing self from other and appears to be task related, whereas the ventral section, the vmPFC, contributes more to emotional processing.
—Robert Martone, Scientific American, 21 Dec. 2021
Thanks to their poisonous dorsal spines, the lionfish are also extravagantly ugly.
—Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
Water bottles fit into twin side pockets, while extra layers tuck into a stretchy dorsal pocket.
—Elizabeth Miller, Outside Online, 27 May 2022
African bush vipers are small reptiles known for their dorsal scales that give them a dragon-like appearance.
—Wilson Wong, NBC News, 13 Apr. 2021
Dierdorff said officials do not know what type of catfish stung the child, but catfish sharp barbs on their dorsal and pectoral fins should be avoided.
—Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 21 June 2022
IEEE Spectrum, 19 Nov. 2023
Except the dorsal vagal complex hasn’t actually been proved to exist in humans.
—Kristen Martin, Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023
One cause of tinnitus is probably overactivity of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in the brain stem.
—Anton Benz, Scientific American, 13 July 2023
Meanwhile, these signals form an amalgam that is funnelled into certain regions of the brain, such as the insular cortex and the dorsal mid-insula.
—Jessica Wapner, The New Yorker, 6 July 2023
However, just zapping fingers doesn’t provide a way of getting those signals to show up just on the bottom (palmar) side of the fingers, rather than the top (dorsal) side, which is where the signal is originating.
—IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
In a pair of user studies, most participants reported feeling over 90 percent of tactile sensation on the palmar side of their hand, despite the electrodes being mounted on the dorsal side.
—IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
The species features three dark spots on the back and blue and orange on the dorsal and anal fins.
—Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2023
Pumping blood from the dorsal spines into the pectoral fins pushes the fins outward from the body, and pumping blood from one side of the tail to the other and back again results in a swimming motion.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 June 2019
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dorsal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Dorsal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dorsal. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.
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Kids Definition
dorsal
adjective
Medical Definition
dorsal
2 of 2 noun
More from Merriam-Webster on dorsal
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for dorsal
Nglish: Translation of dorsal for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of dorsal for Arabic Speakers
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