ventral

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   situated on or directed toward the belly or lower surface of an animal, or the front surface of an upright human body

   The dragonet's ventral fins were darker than its dorsal fin.

2. 2
   adj

   situated on the lower surface of a plant organ or another structure with distinct upper and lower sides

   The fern's spores formed along the ventral surface of each frond.

3. 3
   noun

   a ventral part, structure, scale, or fin

   The specimen's paired ventrals lay just behind the pectoral fins.

Borrowed through French ventral from Late Latin ventralis, from Latin venter ("belly, abdomen") + -alis. In comparative anatomy, the ventral side is opposite the dorsal or back side.

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