posterior
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 →
2) (formal) Posterior can also mean later in time. tree →
3) (humorous) Someone's posterior is their bottom. tree →
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
- Moses auditoribus in secundo divinse veritatis loco, hoc est in ratione quoe est posterior authoritate, habitus." Parisiis, 1552. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- Moses auditoribus in secundo divinæ veritatis loco, hoc est in ratione quœ est posterior authoritate, habitus." Parisiis, 1552. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- The posterior legs of a frog are longer than the front legs. tree →
- The doctor checked the posterior part of the knee. tree →
- A fish's tail is at its posterior end. tree →
- (humorous) He slipped on the ice and landed on his posterior. tree →
- (humorous) "Get your posterior off the sofa and help!" said Gran. tree →
- The ear's posterior side is the side facing the back of your head. tree →
- In science we label anterior (front) and posterior (back) on the diagram. tree →
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, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.