What is anterior vs posterior in grammar?
Posterior comes from the Latin word posterus, meaning "coming after". Posterior is often used as a technical term in biology and medicine to refer to the back side of things, and is the opposite of anterior, which refers to the front side.
The difference between anterior and posterior is simple: anterior means near or towards the front of something and posterior means near or towards the back. In minimally invasive cervical spine surgery, an anterior approach would mean the incision is made toward the front of the neck.
Anterior or ventral - front (example, the kneecap is located on the anterior side of the leg). Posterior or dorsal - back (example, the shoulder blades are located on the posterior side of the body). Medial - toward the midline of the body (example, the middle toe is located at the medial side of the foot).
“A” comes before “P” in the alphabet, and this can help you remember anterior is in the front and posterior is in the back. Anatomical Directional Terms: Labeled diagram of anterior (front; toward the front of the body) and posterior (back; toward the back of the body).
Anterior means "in front of" or "the front surface of." It usually refers to the front side of the body. For example, your knee caps are on the anterior part of your body.
Anterior and posterior are opposites, with anterior referring to the front of the body and posterior referring to the back. Ventral is used interchangeably with anterior, and dorsal is used interchangeably with posterior.
anterior to a frontal structure. front. relating to or located in the front. Antonyms: posterior. located at or near or behind a part or near the end of a structure.
/pəʊsˈtɪriə/ Other forms: posteriorly; posteriors. Use the adjective posterior to describe something that's in the back. It's often used in anatomy — a posterior cerebral artery supplies blood to the back of the brain, and the tail is on the posterior of a fish.
Listen to pronunciation. (pos-TEER-ee-er) In human anatomy, has to do with the back of a structure, or a structure found toward the back of the body.
Dorsal and ventral are sometimes used in place of anterior and posterior, respectively. Dorsal means the back side or upper side, while ventral means the frontal or lower side. These are mostly used with animal anatomy, but can be used in human anatomy as long as they are describing the side of an appendage.
Why is anterior and posterior important?
In the medical field, anterior and posterior are directional anatomical terms to help determine and distinguish positions on the human body. Having anatomical terms like these aid in medical diagnoses, procedures, disease reference points, charting signs and symptoms of illnesses, and more.
Although the anterior approach has some positive benefits, including being less invasive and having a quicker recovery, the posterior approach has been successfully used on more than 30,000 patients at the Kennedy Center over the past 30 years.

The toes are anterior to the foot. Posterior (or dorsal) Describes the back or direction toward the back of the body. The popliteus is posterior to the patella. Superior (or cranial) describes a position above or higher than another part of the body proper.
adjective. situated before or at the front of; fore (opposed to posterior). going before in time or sequence; preceding; earlier: events anterior to the outbreak of war. Linguistics.
The man squeezed his large posterior into the chair.
Anterior | At or near the front of the body (front view) |
---|---|
Medial | Nearer to midline (side view) |
Superior | Toward the head/upper part of a structure (bird's-eye view, looking down) |
Inferior | Away from the head/lower part of a structure (bottom view, looking up) |
Some common synonyms of anterior are antecedent, foregoing, former, preceding, previous, and prior.
Right: Toward the patient's right. Left: Toward the patient's left. Anterior/ventral: Front, or toward the front of the body. Posterior/dorsal: Back, or toward the back of the body.
Anterior describes a part of the body that is situated at or toward the front of another part. [medicine] ...the left anterior descending artery. Synonyms: front, forward, fore, frontward More Synonyms of anterior. More Synonyms of anterior.
Anterior refers to the front of the human body when used to describe anatomy. The opposite of anterior is posterior, meaning the back of the human body.
Which way is posterior?
Posterior (or dorsal) Describes the back or direction toward the back of the body.
backside, derriere, fanny, rear end, rump, back, behind, hind, last, following, latter, bottom, butt, buttocks, can, cheeks, duff, rear, seat, tail.
'Posterior' means 'relating to the rear or hind end'. 'Dorsal' means 'relating to the upper or back side of the body. ' Hence, they have similar meanings. 'Anterior' is antonymous with 'posterior', 'antecedent' and 'former' mean 'coming before'.
Right Occiput Posterior – Baby's back favors mother's right and the back of baby's head is towards mother's posterior. In Right Occiput Posterior (ROP), baby is head down and the back is to the side- the right side. ROP is the most common of the four posterior positions.
Point Estimates
When q is a continuous-valued variable, as here, the most common Bayesian point estimate is the mean (or expectation) of the posterior distribution, which is called the “posterior mean”. The mean of the Beta(31,71) distribution is 31/(31+71) = 0.3. So we would say “The posterior mean for q is 0.3.”
Thus, with regard to anterior or posterior, the anatomical equivalent of dorsal is posterior. Since posterior means 'opposite the direction of movement', its body part equivalent is the dorsal side of the body. Anterior is the same as the ventral side of the human body—that's in the direction we typically navigate.
Inferior: Looking up from the bottom of a structure (away from the head/lower part) Superficial: Located close to the body's surface. Deep: Far from the body's surface. Proximal: Closer to a structure's origin.
Proximal and distal are opposite directional terms in humans.
“The anterior chain lets us perform our pushing movements, and the posterior chain allows us to do pulling exercises.” And Jirgl notes that alternating between the two, as opposed to doing two upper-body days (push/pull) and a leg day twice per week, is better, since you can work your full body more often.
The brain is superior to the spinal cord in people, but in quadrupeds the brain is anterior (forward in motion) to the spinal cord. "Dorsal" means "in the direction away from the ridge of the human back or its equivalent in other animals.
Can anterior change to posterior?
It is very common for the position of the placenta to change as the uterus stretches and grows. An anterior placenta can migrate toward the top, sides, or back of the uterus as the weeks go on.
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Most patients will continue to need the cane for walking until 2-4 weeks postoperative; if you feel that you still need it for safety/balance, please continue to use it.
The frontal plane divides the body or an organ into an anterior (front) portion and a posterior (rear) portion. The frontal plane is often referred to as a coronal plane. (“Corona” is Latin for “crown.”) The transverse (or horizontal) plane divides the body or organ horizontally into upper and lower portions.
On a human body, dorsal (i.e., posterior) refers to the back portion of the body, whereas ventral (i.e., anterior) refers to the front part of the body. The terms dorsal and ventral are also often used to describe the relative location of a body part.
The anterior of anything is the front — in humans, it's the area toward the head of the body, opposite of the posterior. Anterior can also refer to something that came before, as in "anterior to the discovery of vaccines."
The French passé antérieur ("anterior past") is the literary and historical equivalent of the past perfect (in French, the plus-que-parfait). It is used in literature, journalism, and historical accounts, for narration, and to indicate an action in the past that occurred before another action in the past.
Examples of anterior
He said the surgery was located primarily in the anterior, or back, of the right shoulder. We found that the increases in volume were in the anterior portion and not in the posterior portion as a function of exercise.
Adjective This new model offers superior performance. The small army was overwhelmed by superior numbers. He only helps us because it makes him feel superior.
Thus the base of the gill passes in a slanting direction across the right-hand side of the kidney, the posterior end being dorsal to the apex of the gland, and the anterior end ventral to the right-hand corner. Anterior part of the foot underlying the head.
How do you use preposition back in a sentence?
Used with prepositions:
"The seats are in the back." "I dropped my keys down the back of the couch." "I've got pain in my back." "She was lying on her back."
Cardinal directions are the four main points of a compass: north, south, east, and west which are also known by the first letters: N, S, E, and W.
There are five different types of following directions. These include basic directions, sequential directions, quantitative and spatial directions, temporal directions, and conditional directions.
North, east, south, and west are the four cardinal directions, often marked by the initials N, E, S, and W. East and west are at right angles to north and south. East is in the clockwise direction of rotation from north. West is directly opposite east.
Anterior means "in front of" or "the front surface of." It usually refers to the front side of the body. For example, your knee caps are on the anterior part of your body.
(an-TEER-ee-er) In human anatomy, has to do with the front of a structure, or a structure found toward the front of the body.
(pos-TEER-ee-er) In human anatomy, has to do with the back of a structure, or a structure found toward the back of the body.
The placenta attaches to the wall of your uterus, and its position can be anywhere — front, back, right, or left. If the placenta attaches to the back of the uterus, it's known as a posterior placenta. If it attaches to the front of the uterus, it's called an anterior placenta.
Some common synonyms of anterior are antecedent, foregoing, former, preceding, previous, and prior. While all these words mean "being before," anterior applies to position before or ahead of usually in space, sometimes in time or order.
Anterior: refers to the front of the body. Posterior: term for the back of the body. Superior: refers to body parts above or towards the head.
What is the purpose of the anterior?
The function of the anterior compartment muscles is to extend the lower limb at the knee joint.
Posterior comes from the Latin word posterus, meaning "coming after". Posterior is often used as a technical term in biology and medicine to refer to the back side of things, and is the opposite of anterior, which refers to the front side.
Posterior probability is a revised probability that takes into account new available information. For example, let there be two urns, urn A having 5 black balls and 10 red balls and urn B having 10 black balls and 5 red balls. Now if an urn is selected at random, the probability that urn A is chosen is 0.5.
The opposite of posterior is anterior, which refers to the front, usually of body parts.
Once the baby is head down, the best position for a labour is the anterior position. Anterior position means the baby's head enters the pelvis facing your back. This is the ideal and most common position for birth (see image).
Both placental positions are considered normal. Aside from being an ideal location for delivery, the other benefit of a posterior placenta is being able to feel your baby's movements early on. This is not the case with an anterior placenta because the placenta may create more space between the baby and your abdomen.
On a human body, dorsal (i.e., posterior) refers to the back portion of the body, whereas ventral (i.e., anterior) refers to the front part of the body. The terms dorsal and ventral are also often used to describe the relative location of a body part.
References
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