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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
Jason Anthony, The Atlantic, 14 June 2025
The golden flying snake bears two main color morphs — a green-yellow form sports bold black streaks and occasional reddish dorsal spots, and another form where the same base hues are overlaid with subtler crossbars.
—Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 31 May 2025
Christian Wolf, Scientific American, 25 June 2025
To begin, researchers tried to mimic sun exposure by shaving the dorsal skin of mice and applying cis-urocanic acid (dissolved in water).
—Jay Kakade
june 03, New Atlas, 3 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for dorsal
Cite this Entry
“Dorsal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dorsal. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
dorsal
2 of 2 noun
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