posterior

• posteriour (obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin posterior (“that comes or follows after; later, latter”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɒsˈtɪə.ɹi.ə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /poʊˈstɪɹ.i.ɚ/, /pɑˈstɪɹ.i.ɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiə(ɹ)

posterior (comparative more posterior, superlative most posterior)

2. (anatomy) Nearer the rear or hind end; nearer the caudal end of the body in quadrupeds or the dorsal end in bipeds.

   Synonyms: back, hinder, rear

   Antonym: anterior

   1. (medicine) Relating to or denoting presentation of a fetus in which the rear or caudal end is nearest the cervix and emerges first at birth.
   2. (botany) Next to, or facing the main stem or axis.
3. (formal) Following in order or in time.

   Synonym: later

   Antonym: prior

• auricularis posterior
• post-
• postical
• posticous

posterior (plural posteriors)

1. (sometimes euphemistic, sometimes humorous) The posterior portions of the human body; especially, the buttocks.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks

   • 2023 December 27, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: the way to Weymouth”, in RAIL, number 999, page 52:

     Stephen reigned from 1135-1154, that nasty period of our history dubbed 'The Anarchy', when forces loyal to Stephen contested the throne with those of Henry I's daughter Matilda, who by rights should have been queen. Stephen, her cousin, plonked his own posterior on the throne.

2. (mathematics) The probability that a hypothesis is true (calculated by Bayes' theorem).

   Synonym: posterior probability

   Antonyms: prior, prior probability

• “posterior”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “posterior”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• repositor, torporise

Borrowed from Latin posteriōrem.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pus.tə.ɾiˈor]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pos.tə.ɾiˈo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pos.te.ɾiˈoɾ]

posterior m or f (masculine and feminine plural posteriors)

1. subsequent (following in order or in time)

   Antonym: anterior

2. posterior (located behind, or towards the rear of an object)

   Antonym: anterior

3. (phonetics, phonology) back

• posterioritat
• posteriorment
• quasiposterior

• “posterior”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “posterior”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “posterior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “posterior” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Learned borrowing from Latin posterior.

posterior (comparative lebih posterior, superlative paling posterior)

1. posterior

Comparative degree of posterus, from post.

posterior (comparative, neuter posterius); third declension

1. comparative degree of posterus
   1. coming after, later; next, following (of time)

      Synonym: secundus

      1. the later of the two, (of persons) the younger
   2. further to the back, hinder, posterior (of space)
   3. later in position or order of mention, latter
   4. less important, secondary, inferior

      Synonym: secundus

Third-declension comparative adjective.

posterior m (genitive posteriōris); third declension

1. (chiefly in the plural) later generations

Third-declension noun.

• posteritās

• “posterior” on page 1554 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

• “posterior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• posterior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • later writers: scriptores aetate posteriores or inferiores
    

From Latin posterior.

• Hyphenation: pos‧te‧ri‧or

posterior m or f (plural posteriores)

1. posterior (following in order or in time)

   Synonym: ulterior

2. posterior (located in the rear)

   Synonym: traseiro

3. (phonetics) back (produced in the back of the mouth)

   Synonym: traseiro

• posteriormente

• “posterior”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French postérieur, from Latin posterior.

posterior m or n (feminine singular posterioră, masculine plural posteriori, feminine and neuter plural posteriore)

1. posterior

From Latin posterior.

• IPA^(key): /posteˈɾjoɾ/ [pos.t̪eˈɾjoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: pos‧te‧rior

posterior m or f (masculine and feminine plural posteriores)

1. posterior, later

   Antonym: anterior

• “posterior”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024