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Glite Dictionary
anteroposterior

anteroposterior

1 8.8
A direction that goes from the front to the back of the body
  • adjective
  • /ˌæntəroʊpəˈstɪriər/
  • Specialized
: anteroposterior
  • The doctor examined the anteroposterior alignment of the patient's spine during the check-up.

Examples

  • Hyndman et al. investigated the effect of dual-task training on mediolateral and anteroposterior postural sway in 54 stroke patients who were discharged from the hospital, and they compared the results between patients who experienced a fall and those who did not.

    Academic text (2015)

  • In the anatomy class, we learned about the anteroposterior axis and its role in body movements.

  • The physical therapist focused on enhancing the anteroposterior stability of the patient's posture.

Surface Forms

anteroposterior positive

Morphology

anteroposterior = posterior (semi-transparent) = antero + posterior

The prefix 'antero-' and root 'posterior' are clear, but the specific anatomical context might not be immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

The word anteroposterior breaks into two parts: antero- meaning 'front' and posterior meaning 'back'. Think of an X-ray taken 'from front to back', and that image helps explain why anteroposterior describes something going from the front of the body to the back.