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Glite Dictionary
mesial

mesial

9.9
Near the middle line of the body or the row of teeth
  • adjective
  • /ˈmiːziəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mesial
  • In anatomy class, we learned that the mesial position of teeth is crucial for understanding dental occlusion.

Examples

  • Volume measures showed only one with asymmetric HVL (a patient with a large vascular lesion that directly involved the mesial temporal structures), and none of the 34 had a known history of CFS.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The dentist pointed out that the mesial surface of the molar is important for proper alignment.

  • Relative to caudate and posterior neocortical damage, volume loss in the structures of the mesial temporal lobe was found to be related to poor recognition memory.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The surgeon accessed the mesial aspect of the brain to treat the underlying condition effectively.

Antonyms

distal
  • Specialized
15 8.2

Farther from the center of the body toward the end of a limb

Surface Forms

mesial positive

Morphology

mesial = mesio + al

Although formed with the productive adjectival suffix '-al', the root 'mesio-' is a technical combining form meaning 'middle' and is not a standalone English word, so learners cannot reliably derive the meaning.

Etymology

Mesial comes from the Latin root medius, which means 'middle'. So mesial describes something that is toward the 'middle', for example the side of a tooth that faces the middle of the mouth or the line down the middle of the body.