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# posterior

«posterior» in Mova's school dictionary: **at the back or behind; it is the opposite of anterior (at…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (posterior — formal/science); noun (a posterior, posteriors — humorous)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (formal, science) Posterior means at the back or behind; it is the opposite of anterior (at the front). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#m1)

2) (formal) Posterior can also mean later in time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#m2)

3) (humorous) Someone's posterior is their bottom. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and medicine lessons it names the back part of an animal or body (the posterior legs of a frog, the posterior part of the brain). In stories it is a jokey, polite-sounding word for a person's bottom, used to be funny. In maths and statistics for older pupils, "posterior" names a probability updated after new evidence.

### examples

- The posterior legs of a frog are longer than the front legs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x1)
- The doctor checked the posterior part of the knee. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x2)
- A fish's tail is at its posterior end. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x3)
- (humorous) He slipped on the ice and landed on his posterior. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x4)
- (humorous) "Get your posterior off the sofa and help!" said Gran. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x5)
- The ear's posterior side is the side facing the back of your head. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x6)
- In science we label anterior (front) and posterior (back) on the diagram. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/#x7)

### note

Pair to learn: anterior = front, posterior = back. Formal or scientific; in daily talk say "back" or "bottom". Not the same as "poster". The humorous sense is mild, not rude.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «posterior» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/posterior/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.