coronal
Americannoun
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a crown; coronet.
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a garland.
adjective
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of or relating to a coronal.
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Anatomy.
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of or relating to a corona.
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(of a plane along the long axis of the body) lying in the direction of the coronal suture.
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Also lying in the direction of the frontal plane.
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Phonetics. (of a speech sound) articulated with the tip of the tongue, especially in a retroflex position.
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Linguistics. (in distinctive feature analysis) articulated with the blade of the tongue raised; dental, alveolar, or palato-alveolar.
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of or relating to the tip of the tongue.
noun
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poetic a circlet for the head; crown
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a wreath or garland
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anatomy short for coronal suture
adjective
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of or relating to a corona or coronal
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phonetics a less common word for retroflex
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coronal
1300–50; Middle English < Latin corōnālis, equivalent to Latin corōn ( a ) crown + -ālis -al 1
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.
Astronomers refer to this type of material as coronal line gas, a term borrowed from studies of the sun's outer atmosphere.
From Science Daily • Jan. 19, 2026
This process creates what scientists call coronal line gas, a name borrowed from the sun's outer atmosphere to describe highly ionized, super-hot plasma.
From Science Daily • Jan. 10, 2026
During the peak of the current cycle, which Nasa confirmed occurred in October 2024, a higher number of sunspots led to more frequent eruptions of solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
From BBC • Dec. 28, 2025
The visionaries of the early Space Age didn’t worry much about solar radiation, coronal mass ejections, galactic cosmic rays, psychological stress from isolation, and cost-benefit ratios.
From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025
The eyes were hollow and the carven beard was broken, but about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
