dorsum

1. 1.

   the posterior part of a human (or animal) body from the neck to the end of the spine

   “his back was nicely tanned”

   Synonymsback

   Broaderbody part

   Part oftorso

   Partssaddlesmalllatissimus dorsithoracic vertebralumbar vertebra
2. 2.

   the back of the body of a vertebrate or any analogous surface (as the upper or outer surface of an organ or appendage or part)

   “the dorsum of the foot”

   Broaderbody part

Other forms of dorsum

plural

dorsa

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about dorsum

What does dorsum mean?

dorsum means "the posterior part of a human (or animal) body from the neck to the end of the spine". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dorsum?

dorsum has 2 syllables: dor-sum. The stress falls on "dor".

What is another word for dorsum?

Close synonyms include back. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dorsum a common word?

dorsum is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.