Posterior
//pɒsˈtɪə.ɹi.ə// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The posterior portions of the human body; especially, the buttocks. euphemistic, humorous, sometimes
"Stephen reigned from 1135-1154, that nasty period of our history dubbed 'The Anarchy', when forces loyal to Stephen contested the throne with those of Henry I's daughter Matilda, who by rights should have been queen. Stephen, her cousin, plonked his own posterior on the throne."
- 2 a tooth situated at the back of the mouth wordnet
- 3 The probability that a hypothesis is true (calculated by Bayes' theorem).
- 4 the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Nearer the rear or hind end; nearer the caudal end of the body in quadrupeds or the dorsal end in bipeds.; Relating to or denoting presentation of a fetus in which the rear or caudal end is nearest the cervix and emerges first at birth.
- 2 Nearer the rear or hind end; nearer the caudal end of the body in quadrupeds or the dorsal end in bipeds.; Next to, or facing the main stem or axis.
- 3 Following in order or in time. formal
Adjective
- 1 coming at a subsequent time or stage wordnet
- 2 located at or near or behind a part or near the end of a structure wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Tom has a posterior hip dislocation."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin posterior (“that comes or follows after; later, latter”).
Related phrases
duplicitas posteriorlong posterior ciliary arteryposterior auricular arteryposterior auricular muscleposterior cerebral arteryposterior chamberposterior cingulate cortexposterior communicating arteryposterior cricoarytenoid muscleposterior cruciate ligamentposterior ethmoidal arteryposterior inferior cerebellar artery
More for "posterior"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.