1. (a.) Pertaining to, or situated near, the back, or dorsum, of an animal or of one of its parts; notal; tergal; neural; as, the dorsal fin of a fish; the dorsal artery of the tongue; -- opposed to ventral.

2. (a.) Pertaining to the surface naturally inferior, as of a leaf.

3. (a.) Pertaining to the surface naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss.

4. (n.) A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, or of an altar, or in any similar position.

accented alveolar apical apico-alveolar apico-dental articulated assimilated back barytone bilabial broad cacuminal central cerebral checked close consonant consonantal continuant dental dissimilated flat front glide glossal glottal gluteal guttural hard heavy high intonated labial labiodental labiovelar lateral lax light lingual liquid low lumbar mid monophthongal muted narrow nasal nasalized occipital occlusive open oxytone palatal palatalized pharyngeal pharyngealized phonemic phonetic phonic pitch pitched posterial posttonic retral retroflex rounded sciatic semivowel soft sonant stopped stressed strong surd syllabic tense tergal thick throaty tonal tonic twangy unaccented unrounded unstressed velar vocalic vocoid voiced voiceless vowel vowellike weak wide