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Lateral shows up in all kinds of contexts. A lateral job change is one that keeps you at about the same job level and salary. A coach might have special drills to improve his players' lateral speed and agility. The British speak of "lateral thinking", thinking that grabs ideas that may not seem to be relevant but turn out to work well—what we might call "thinking outside the box". But we know lateral best from football. A lateral pass is a pass of the ball between teammates that usually goes to the side and slightly backward from the direction in which they're advancing; unlike a forward pass, a lateral may be made from any position, and any number may be made in a single play.
Synonyms
Examples of lateral in a Sentence
Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 1 Dec. 2023
The low bulwarks and lateral walkways continue a sense of space.
—Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 24 Nov. 2023
The right ankle injury that knocked Kupp out of the Rams’ victory over the Seattle Seahawks was determined to be only a lateral sprain, coach Sean McVay said.
—Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2023
Similar to the way supernovae serve as standard candles, providing a distance scale stretching from our eyeballs across the universe, BAOs provide a standard ruler—a length scale for lateral separations across the sky.
—Richard Panek, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
Elevate The Importance Of Visibility A major challenge that continues to face organizations in the quest to secure the hybrid cloud is protecting against lateral movement—also known as East-West movement.
—Shane Buckley, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023
There was a weaker apparent association between elevated biological age and Alzheimer’s disease and other motor neuron diseases, which include progressive spinal muscular atrophy and primary lateral sclerosis.
—Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 6 Nov. 2023
Other screenshots showed additional details, such as the post-exploit lateral movement to other parts of the victim’s network and the source of the attacks.
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 6 Nov. 2023
He was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, two years ago.
—Nicholas Rice, Peoplemag, 8 Oct. 2023
Erin Couch, The Enquirer, 10 Sep. 2023
Cable Lateral Raises: Her trainer also loves to assign her cable lateral raises to build up her shoulders and glutes.
—Dominique Fluker, Essence, 8 Sep. 2023
Jones also infamously scored the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots on a botched lateral on the final play.
—Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY, 6 Sep. 2023
No one laterals or fumbles or randomly attempts a drop kick with the game on the line all season long.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2023
After Braden Long's 19-yard touchdown run put Harrison (3-3, 1-2) on the scoreboard, the Saints responded with Bo Williams' 69-yard touchdown run and Mason's 47-yard touchdown pass from Cohen Beach, who caught a lateral from Baker and made the loss.
—Nwa Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 8 Oct. 2023
Patriots junior quarterback Eli Ruiz threw a lateral to senior wide receiver Quino Bracamontes, but Mission Bay met him before the line of scrimmage, resulting in a 7-yard loss.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Sep. 2023
That blunder happened a week after Meyers’s lateral found a wide-open Chandler Jones for the winning touchdown … the problem being, of course, that Jones plays for the Las Vegas Raiders.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2023
Down by a point after John Gordon Jr.’s TD run, Heights called for a lateral to Atkins, who ran in the winning 2-point conversion.
—Matt Goul, cleveland, 17 Sep. 2023
Evan Dudley, al, 1 Nov. 2020
By all accounts, there were no orders from Bill Belichick or Matt Patricia to lateral the ball and try to create a scoring play.
—Ben Volin, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Dec. 2022
Bullock completed about a 10-yard pass to Cameron Augurson on a dig route, and Augurson was able to lateral the ball back to Jacob Emmers.
—Dallas News, 6 Sep. 2022
New England coach Bill Belichick declined to say whether the Patriots players had been instructed to lateral on the final play or reminded not to so with the score tied.
—Mark Inabinett | Minabinett@al.com, al, 18 Dec. 2022
Florida State tried to lateral the ball multiple times, but Clemson eventually picked up a fumble and scored.
—Christopher Smith, al, 31 Oct. 2021
The vast majority of the time, when a football team tries to lateral its way down the field in desperation, the result benefits the defending the team.
—Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 12 Sep. 2020
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill connected with Kenny Stills, who tossed the ball to DeVante Parker, who lateraled to Kenyan Drake, who ran 52 yards for the game-winning score, outrunning Rob Gronkowski en route to the end zone.
—Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 1 Apr. 2020
Brady recovered and lateraled to Ben Watson, who sent it back to Edelman, who flung it back to Thuney.
—BostonGlobe.com, 31 Dec. 2019
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lateral.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Adjective, Noun, and Verb
Middle English laterale, from Latin lateralis, from later-, latus side
Adjective
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Noun
1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
1930, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing lateral
Dictionary Entries Near lateral
Cite this Entry
“Lateral.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lateral. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
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Kids Definition
lateral
1 of 2 adjective
lateral
2 of 2 noun
Medical Definition
lateral
adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on lateral
Nglish: Translation of lateral for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of lateral for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about lateral
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