dorsal
adj.adj. relating to the back of a person or animal. You use it to describe the rear side of a body, like the back of a hand or the spine.
adj. relating to the back or upper surface of an organism or body part. In human anatomy, it refers to the posterior aspect; in quadrupeds, it refers to the upper side.
The dorsal fin helps the shark stay upright.
The doctor examined the dorsal side of the patient's hand for signs of swelling.
In vertebrate embryology, the neural tube develops along the dorsal axis, eventually forming the central nervous system.
From Late Middle English dorsal/dorsale, borrowing from Medieval Latin dorsālis (“of or relating to the back”), from dorsum (“the back”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to dorsum + -al.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 4, 2026