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. For example, as more people took up running as a sport, doctors began to see an increase in stress fractures along the posterior as well as the anterior surface of the lower leg bones. In some technical fields, posterior may mean "later". When used as a noun, posterior simply means "buttocks".
Adjective the posterior part of the brain the chapel's posterior location in the church serves to make it a quiet retreat Noun The man squeezed his large posterior into the chair. the baseball players were always slapping one another on the posterior
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
The backpedal movement helps to develop the posterior chain. Jen Murphy, WSJ, 3 Sep. 2022 This is a great stretch at the back side of your hamstring and backside of your thigh to open up the muscles in the posterior chain. Perri O. Blumberg, Men's Health, 31 Aug. 2022 Your hamstrings are large muscles that run along the back of your body, or on your posterior chain. Christa Sgobba, SELF, 19 Aug. 2022 Jones is scheduled to undergo an arthroscopic posterior labral repair with Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Wednesday in Los Angeles, Diamondbacks farm director Josh Barfield said. Nick Piecoro, The Arizona Republic, 2 Aug. 2022 But there’s also a lot of territory to cover—the lats, mid-back, lower back—so selecting the right moves to efficiently cover this entire posterior region becomes the greatest challenge. Jeff Tomko, Men's Health, 30 June 2022 Sahelanthropus, an extant human, a chimpanzee and a gorilla (in posterior view). Tom Metcalfe, NBC News, 24 Aug. 2022 In May 2021, outfielder Corbin Carroll suffered tears in the labrum and posterior capsule of his right shoulder. Nick Piecoro, USA TODAY, 27 July 2022 In May 2021, outfielder Corbin Carroll suffered tears in the labrum and posterior capsule of his right shoulder. Nick Piecoro, USA TODAY, 27 July 2022
Noun
That had Lowry laughing with Carter about the variety of memes of him over the years with the THICC urban slang for his ample posterior. Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 8 Aug. 2022 Brown shook Grayson Allen so thoroughly on an 18-foot jumper in the first quarter that Allen staggered and his posterior ended up on the parquet. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 4 May 2022 If that set of bones is well controlled, the tibialis posterior can work eccentrically to smoothly lower your foot to the ground. Jay Dicharry, Outside Online, 13 Mar. 2019 The deltoid muscles consist of three parts: the anterior (front) deltoid, lateral (medial) deltoid, and posterior (back) deltoid. Tyler Hatfield, Men's Health, 26 Apr. 2022 The whitish larvae are C-shaped with a bulbous posterior. Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Apr. 2022 This compromises the tibialis posterior and its tendon. Jay Dicharry, Outside Online, 13 Mar. 2019 Philip English imagines a stuffy British bureaucrat parking his posterior on that seat and arguing that humans could never have descended from apes. Mary Carole Mccauley, baltimoresun.com, 13 Mar. 2022 Somewhere along the way, many of us have lost touch with our intuitive gait and developed inefficient patterns, letting the front of our bodies do the work instead of our powerhouse posterior chain. Esther Smith, Outside Online, 9 Jan. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Latin, comparative of posterus coming after, from post after — more at post-