How to Use dorsal in a Sentence

dorsal

1 of 2 noun
Definition of dorsalnext
Synonyms for dorsalnext
  • The hook goes through the bridge of the nose, or in just behind the dorsal fin.
    — Frank Sargeant, AL.com, 10 Sep. 2017
  • The video shows the shark to have a large open wound just behind its dorsal fin.
    — Fox News, 12 June 2017
  • Late at night, the ids of his callers and guests flash like dorsal fins.
    — Dwight Garner, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2017
  • A dorsal fin would have looked less out of place in the photo than a vehicle.
    — Amy B Wang, Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2017
  • For king salmon, a notch is made in their adipose fin, the small fin on their backs between their large, dorsal fin and their tail.
    — Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press, 23 Oct. 2017
  • The region, known as the dorsal raphe nucleus, or D.R.N., is best known for its link to depression.
    — Katie Hafner, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2016
  • Every white cap is a head sticking out of the water, every piece of flotsam is a dorsal fin.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 21 Sep. 2017
  • The female often sports a white dorsal stripe along her back, while the male displays a larger throat fan, or dewlap, that’s bright red and three times the size of the female’s fan.
    — René A. Guzman, ExpressNews.com, 12 Aug. 2020
  • African bush vipers are small reptiles known for their dorsal scales that give them a dragon-like appearance.
    — Wilson Wong, NBC News, 13 Apr. 2021
  • Most that have seen the Lake Norman Monster seem to agree that the beast is more fish like, with a slender body, thick whisker like appendages, flippers and a ragged looking dorsal fin.
    — Mark Price, charlotteobserver, 16 July 2017
  • The females are usually dark-colored, frequently with red, white, or brown markings on the dorsal of the abdomen.
    — Bill Heavey, Field & Stream, 19 Oct. 2020
  • Sieswerda says that Patchy also has a distinct injured dorsal fin.
    — CBS News, 6 July 2017
  • Dierdorff said officials do not know what type of catfish stung the child, but catfish sharp barbs on their dorsal and pectoral fins should be avoided.
    — Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 21 June 2022
  • While the subjects pondered how loud to set the volume, the dorsal striatum, part of the brain’s reward circuitry, lit up at the prospect of retaliation.
    — Kat McGowan, Discover Magazine, 25 Mar. 2019
  • Also called suckerfish, their strong grip comes from an adhesive disk made from a modified dorsal fin on the fish’s head.
    — Science | AAAS, 20 Sep. 2017
  • This time, however, the dolphin’s signal is picked up by a team of scientists, for whom the coronavirus pandemic has had a silver-dorsal lining.
    — Ronan O'Connell, Wired, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Several hours and several fish later, Wetherhorn's brother Neville opened the fish hold and saw what no one had noticed earlier: A little blue tag near the dorsal fin of that teeny, tiny fish.
    — Beth Bragg, Alaska Dispatch News, 17 Aug. 2017
  • For jumbo kings of 30 pounds and up, live bait is usually a better choice—cigar minnows or menhaden rigged with a number 6 extra-strong treble in the nose, a second on a stinger hook near the dorsal, connected by number 6 wire.
    — Frank Sargeant, al, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Water bottles fit into twin side pockets, while extra layers tuck into a stretchy dorsal pocket.
    — Elizabeth Miller, Outside Online, 27 May 2022
  • Officials are warning visitors to several beaches in the Seaside and Cannon Beach area to watch out for sharks, after dorsal fins were spotted offshore.
    — Lizzy Acker, OregonLive.com, 19 July 2017
  • In rats, for example, females typically have less-dense receptors in the dorsal hippocampus, which is involved in memory, than do males.
    — Alison Gopnik, WSJ, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Palumbi said sharks with only one dorsal fin, instead of two, have been spotted, possible evidence of mutations caused by radiation exposure.
    — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 6 July 2017
  • Bony, hollow appendages on their dorsal and pectoral fins can inject venom, causing severe pain, infections and occasionally respiratory and cardiac problems.
    — Bonnie Berkowitz, chicagotribune.com, 30 June 2017
  • Historically, selective dorsal rhizotomy has been performed on children.
    — Lauren Sieben, SELF, 22 Mar. 2022
  • The hook goes through the bridge of the nose, or in just behind the dorsal fin.
    — Frank Sargeant, AL.com, 10 Sep. 2017
  • The video shows the shark to have a large open wound just behind its dorsal fin.
    — Fox News, 12 June 2017
  • Late at night, the ids of his callers and guests flash like dorsal fins.
    — Dwight Garner, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2017
  • A dorsal fin would have looked less out of place in the photo than a vehicle.
    — Amy B Wang, Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2017
  • For king salmon, a notch is made in their adipose fin, the small fin on their backs between their large, dorsal fin and their tail.
    — Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press, 23 Oct. 2017
  • The region, known as the dorsal raphe nucleus, or D.R.N., is best known for its link to depression.
    — Katie Hafner, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2016
Advertisement

dorsal

2 of 2 adjective
  • The species features three dark spots on the back and blue and orange on the dorsal and anal fins.
    — Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2023
  • But sometimes hooking a minnow just under the dorsal fin or at the tail triggers strikes from more finicky crappies.
    — Bob McNally, Field & Stream, 4 Mar. 2020
  • Pumping blood from the dorsal spines into the pectoral fins pushes the fins outward from the body, and pumping blood from one side of the tail to the other and back again results in a swimming motion.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 19 June 2019
  • Conversely, Willamette chinook may be longer and a bit leaner, with less dorsal brilliance.
    — Bill Monroe, OregonLive.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Arctic grayling males are more colorful than their female counterparts and sport a much longer dorsal fin.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Apr. 2018
  • The relatively small dorsal fin belies the humpback’s size.
    — Jason Nark, National Geographic, 13 Mar. 2019
  • To add support for the dual origin hypothesis, Dr. Linz said, evolution would have had to fuse a structure on the dorsal region of the segment and one from the pleural tissue.
    — Asher Elbein, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2018
  • Meanwhile, these signals form an amalgam that is funnelled into certain regions of the brain, such as the insular cortex and the dorsal mid-insula.
    — Jessica Wapner, The New Yorker, 6 July 2023
  • One cause of tinnitus is probably overactivity of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in the brain stem.
    — Anton Benz, Scientific American, 13 July 2023
  • However, just zapping fingers doesn’t provide a way of getting those signals to show up just on the bottom (palmar) side of the fingers, rather than the top (dorsal) side, which is where the signal is originating.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
  • Except the dorsal vagal complex hasn’t actually been proved to exist in humans.
    — Kristen Martin, Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Restylane® Lyft with Lidocaine is also intended for injection in the dorsal hand to correct volume loss.
    — Vogue, 1 Apr. 2019
  • In a pair of user studies, most participants reported feeling over 90 percent of tactile sensation on the palmar side of their hand, despite the electrodes being mounted on the dorsal side.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
  • Three brain areas work together to stop body movement: the dorsal part of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (red), the ventral part of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (blue) and the bilateral frontal eye fields (green).
    — Ben Tinker, CNN, 8 Dec. 2017
  • The prefrontal cortex is involved in decision making; the dorsal periaqueductal gray area processes painful and aversive events.
    — Cody A. Siciliano, The Conversation, 21 Nov. 2019
  • Among the brain’s many pain-producing patterns, however, there is only one region that is consistently active at a high level: the dorsal posterior region of the insula.
    — Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker, 9 May 2016
  • The species features three dark spots on the back and blue and orange on the dorsal and anal fins.
    — Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2023
  • But sometimes hooking a minnow just under the dorsal fin or at the tail triggers strikes from more finicky crappies.
    — Bob McNally, Field & Stream, 4 Mar. 2020
  • Pumping blood from the dorsal spines into the pectoral fins pushes the fins outward from the body, and pumping blood from one side of the tail to the other and back again results in a swimming motion.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 19 June 2019
  • Conversely, Willamette chinook may be longer and a bit leaner, with less dorsal brilliance.
    — Bill Monroe, OregonLive.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Arctic grayling males are more colorful than their female counterparts and sport a much longer dorsal fin.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Apr. 2018
  • The relatively small dorsal fin belies the humpback’s size.
    — Jason Nark, National Geographic, 13 Mar. 2019
  • To add support for the dual origin hypothesis, Dr. Linz said, evolution would have had to fuse a structure on the dorsal region of the segment and one from the pleural tissue.
    — Asher Elbein, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2018
  • Meanwhile, these signals form an amalgam that is funnelled into certain regions of the brain, such as the insular cortex and the dorsal mid-insula.
    — Jessica Wapner, The New Yorker, 6 July 2023
  • One cause of tinnitus is probably overactivity of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in the brain stem.
    — Anton Benz, Scientific American, 13 July 2023
  • However, just zapping fingers doesn’t provide a way of getting those signals to show up just on the bottom (palmar) side of the fingers, rather than the top (dorsal) side, which is where the signal is originating.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
  • Except the dorsal vagal complex hasn’t actually been proved to exist in humans.
    — Kristen Martin, Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Restylane® Lyft with Lidocaine is also intended for injection in the dorsal hand to correct volume loss.
    — Vogue, 1 Apr. 2019
  • In a pair of user studies, most participants reported feeling over 90 percent of tactile sensation on the palmar side of their hand, despite the electrodes being mounted on the dorsal side.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Apr. 2023
  • Three brain areas work together to stop body movement: the dorsal part of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (red), the ventral part of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (blue) and the bilateral frontal eye fields (green).
    — Ben Tinker, CNN, 8 Dec. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dorsal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: