Definition of "anterior" []

• Placed before or in front. (adjective)
• Occurring before in time; earlier. (adjective)
• Anatomy Located near or toward the head in lower animals. (adjective)
• Anatomy Located on or near the front of the body in higher animals. (adjective)
• Anatomy Located on or near the front of an organ or on the ventral surface of the body in humans. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term anterior pole is applied to the central point of the anterior curvature of the bulb, and that of posterior pole to the central point of its posterior curvature; a line joining the two poles forms the optic axis."
• "Surgeons perform neck surgery from the front or back, which they refer to as anterior and posterior approaches."
• "You have the knee and you have these ligaments around it called the anterior cruciate ligament and the posterior cruciate ligament."