lateral

  1. Adjective.  To the side; of or pertaining to the side.
  2. Adjective.  (anatomy) Pertaining to the left or right of the body; further from the midline.
  3. Adjective.  (botany) Pertaining to the girth of an organ, rather than its thickness or length.
  4. Adjective.  (linguistics) Pertaining to sounds that are generated by partially blocking the egress of the airstream with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, leaving space on one or both sides of the occlusion for the air passage.
  5. Noun.  an object, such as a passage or a protrusion, that is situated on the side of something else.
  6. Noun.  (linguistics) a sound produced through lateral pronunciation (such as /l/ in ''lateral'').
  7. Noun.  (American football) a lateral pass.
  8. Verb.  To move (oneself or something) in a lateral direction.
  9. Verb.  (American football) To execute a lateral pass.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.