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ventrally

ventrally

8.8
In or towards the belly side of an animal
  • adverb
  • /ˈvɛntrəli/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ventralmente
  • The turtle's limbs extend ventrally as it moves across the sandy beach.

Examples

  • The chorda tympani nerve comes off rostrally, courses ventrally to the first pharyngeal pouch, and enters the mandibular arch.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The most important difference, from our perspective, is that Tritonia flexes dorsally and ventrally, while Melibe flexes its body laterally, from side to side. See illustrations on pages 38-39.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Another portion courses ventrally, terminating deep to the platysma myoblastic lamina.

    Academic text (2003)
  • They're migrating dorsally into the skin and ventrally where they're going to form the ganglia of the peripheral nervous system.

  • Generally, the amniote ribs grow ventrally into the lateral body wall, whereas in the turtle, they are arrested in the axial part (ax), growing toward the CR.

    Blog text (15)
  • The fish swims ventrally, showing its belly to the sunlight.

  • In many mammals, the heart is located ventrally to the lungs.

Synonyms

anteriorly
vsventrally
  • Specialized
1 8.2

Toward the front of the body or a body part

emphasizes the belly side as well as the forward side
frontally
vsventrally
1 5.8

From the side that faces another person or thing

stresses the belly side in organisms rather than general forward position

Surface Forms

ventrally positive

Morphology

ventrally = ventral (transparent) = ventral + ly

A standard adverbial formation from the adjective 'ventral' (+ -ly), so the direction/position sense is directly derived.

Etymology

Ventrally comes from the Latin root venter, which means 'belly'. You can see the same root in ventral and ventriloquist, so ventrally means 'towards the belly' or the front side of an animal.