ventral
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the venter or belly; abdominal.
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Anatomy, Zoology. situated on or toward the lower, abdominal plane of the body; equivalent to the front, or anterior, in humans.
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Botany, Mycology. of or designating the lower or inner surface of a structure.
adjective
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relating to the front part of the body; towards the belly Compare dorsal
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of, relating to, or situated on the upper or inner side of a plant organ, esp a leaf, that is facing the axis
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ventral
1730–40; < Latin ventrālis, equivalent to vent ( e ) r venter + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
The adjective ventral refers to the area on the body in the lower front, around the stomach area. The ventral fin on a fish is the one on its belly. The ventral area of anything, plant or animal, is its underside. In directional terms, the ventral side is the area forward from (or under) the spinal cord. The word comes from the Latin noun venter, which meant "belly," which lent its meaning to ventrālis, which referred to anything pertaining to the belly area. When a shark is swimming toward you, you see the dorsal fin on its back but not the ventral fin on its belly, which remains unseen beneath the waves.
Vocabulary lists containing ventral
Animals (Zoology) - Middle School
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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Animals (Zoology) - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Figure 14.26 Ventral and Dorsal Visual Streams From the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe, visual processing continues in two streams—one into the temporal lobe and one into the parietal lobe.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
Figure 1.15 Dorsal and Ventral Body Cavities The ventral cavity includes the thoracic and abdominopelvic cavities and their subdivisions.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
Ventral coloration is the most variable character among the types.
From A Synopsis of Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Osteocephalus by Duellman, William E.
Ventral fins of nine rays each, one of them long and simple, the rest, as in the foregoing, gradually shorter, the last being cloven.
From Lachesis Lapponica A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1 by Linn?, Carl von
Ventral: pertaining to the under surface of abdomen: in Diptera, that face of the leg which is inferior when laterally extended.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
