lateral

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: lat=er=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

lateral, a. [L. lateralis, fr. latus, lateris, side: cf. F. latéral.].

•  Of or pertaining to the sides; as, the lateral walls of a house; the lateral branches of a tree.  [1913 Webster]
•  Lying at, or extending toward, the side; away from the mesial plane; external; -- opposed to mesial.  [1913 Webster]
•  Directed to the side; as, a lateral view of a thing.  [1913 Webster]

Lateral cleavage (Crystallog.), cleavage parallel to the lateral planes. -- Lateral equation (Math.), an equation of the first degree. [Obs.] -- Lateral line (Anat.), in fishes, a line of sensory organs along either side of the body, often marked by a distinct line of color. -- Lateral pressure or stress (Mech.), a pressure or stress at right angles to the length, as of a beam or bridge; -- distinguished from longitudinal pressure or stress. -- Lateral strength (Mech.), strength which resists a tendency to fracture arising from lateral pressure. -- Lateral system (Bridge Building), the system of horizontal braces (as between two vertical trusses) by which lateral stiffness is secured.

lateral, n. 

•  A short pass to a receiver who is upfield from the passer, i.e. is behind the passer relative to the direction of the passer's goal.  [PJC]
•  A part or extension of something that points sideways, as a drift in a mine that goes to the side from the main one.  [PJC]

lateral, v. t. & i. 

 To pass the footbal to a receiver who is behind the passer; to make a lateral pass; as, the ball was lateraled to the fullback, who ran it for a touchdown.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

lateral, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 of, at, towards, or from the side or sides.
2 descended from a brother or sister of a person in direct line.
--n. a side part etc., esp. a lateral shoot or branch.

Idiom

lateral line Zool. a visible line along the side of a fish consisting of a series of sense organs acting as vibration receptors. lateral thinking a method of solving problems indirectly or by apparently illogical methods.

Derivative

laterally adv.

Etymology

L lateralis f. latus lateris side

THESAURUS

lateral

accented, allophone, alveolar, apical, apico-alveolar, apico-dental, articulated, articulation, aspiration, assimilated, assimilation, back, barytone, bifacial, bilabial, bilateral, bowl, broad, cacuminal, cast, central, cerebral, change of pace, change-up, check, checked, chuck, chunk, close, consonant, consonantal, continuant, curve, dental, dihedral, diphthong, dissimilated, dissimilation, dorsal, downcurve, edge, epenthetic vowel, explosive, fastball, flanked, flanking, flat, fling, flip, forward pass, front, glancing, glide, glossal, glottal, glottalization, go crabwise, go sideways, guttural, handed, hard, heave, heavy, high, hurl, incurve, intonated, knuckleball, labial, labialization, labiodental, labiovelar, laryngeal, lateral pass, lateralize, lax, lee, leeward, light, lingual, liquid, lob, low, make leeway, manner of articulation, many-sided, mid, modification, monophthong, monophthongal, morphophoneme, multilateral, mute, muted, narrow, nasal, nasalized, next-beside, occlusive, one-sided, open, outcurve, oxytone, palatal, palatalized, parasitic vowel, pass, peak, peg, pharyngeal, pharyngealization, pharyngealized, phone, phoneme, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, pitch, pitched, plosive, polyhedral, posttonic, prothetic vowel, put, quadrilateral, retroflex, rounded, screwball, segmental phoneme, semivowel, serve, service, shot-put, shy, side, sided, sideling, sidelong, sideslip, sidestep, sideward, sidewards, sideway, sideways, sidewise, sidle, sinker, skew, skid, skirting, slider, sling, soft, sonant, sonority, speech sound, spitball, spitter, stop, stopped, stressed, strong, surd, syllabic, syllabic nucleus, syllabic peak, syllable, tense, tetrahedral, thick, three-sided, throaty, throw, tonal, tonic, toss, transition sound, trihedral, trilateral, triphthong, triquetrous, twangy, two-sided, unaccented, unilateral, unrounded, unstressed, upcurve, veer, velar, vocable, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced, voiced sound, voiceless, voiceless sound, voicing, vowel, vowellike, weak, weather, wide, windward

ROGET THESAURUS

lateral

Laterality

N laterality, side, flank, quarter, lee, hand, cheek, jowl, jole, wing, profile, temple, parietes, loin, haunch, hip, beam, gable, gable end, broadside, lee side, points of the compass, East, Orient, Levant, West, orientation, lateral, sidelong, collateral, parietal, flanking, skirting, flanked, sideling, many sided, multilateral, bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral, Eastern, orient, oriental, Levantine, Western, occidental, Hesperian, sideways, sidelong, broadside on, on one side, abreast, alongside, beside, aside, by the side of, side by side, cheek by jowl, to windward, to leeward, laterally, right and left, on her beam ends, his cheek the may of days outworn.