Cephalad

//ˈsɛfəlæd// adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Towards the head (or anterior extremity), a direction that in humans corresponds to superior.

    "Perianal disease is common in patients with Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately, the perianal area often is poorly evaluated by barium studies because the enema tip may be inserted too cephalad or because exquisite anal tenderness may preclude adequate retrograde distension and evaluation."

Synonyms

All synonyms
cephaliccraniad

Example

More examples

"Perianal disease is common in patients with Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately, the perianal area often is poorly evaluated by barium studies because the enema tip may be inserted too cephalad or because exquisite anal tenderness may preclude adequate retrograde distension and evaluation."

Etymology

From cephal- + -ad.

More for "cephalad"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.