| Dorsal 1. (a.) 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. 2. (a.) Pertaining to the surface naturally inferior, as of a leaf. 3. (a.) Pertaining to the surface naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss. 4. (n.) A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, or of an altar, or in any similar position. Thesaurus Entries 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 |