How to Use dorsal in a Sentence

dorsal

1 of 2 noun
  • Its unique, silvery-gray dorsal patch is what gave it its name.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Late at night, the ids of his callers and guests flash like dorsal fins.
    — Dwight Garner, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2017
  • The video shows the shark to have a large open wound just behind its dorsal fin.
    — Fox News, 12 June 2017
  • The hook goes through the bridge of the nose, or in just behind the dorsal fin.
    — Frank Sargeant, AL.com, 10 Sep. 2017
  • They are so named for the black color on the tips of their dorsal and pectoral fins.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 3 Sep. 2025
  • These small, spiny fish are notable for their bright yellow dorsal coloration.
    — Stories By Real-Time News Team, With Ai Summarization, Miami Herald, 13 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • For example, a ray's wing or a dolphin's dorsal could look like a shark fin when sticking out of the water.
    — Skyler Caruso, Peoplemag, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Another stealth feature is the dorsal air inlets on the upper surface of the fuselage.
    — David Szondy april 21, New Atlas, 21 Apr. 2026
  • For one, there was the enigma of what scientists had believed was the dorsal organ’s position.
    — Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 24 June 2024
  • Javelinas look like small pigs and are tan to brownish in color with a reddish dorsal stripe on its back hairs, according to the state agency.
    — Jose R. Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 3 Jan. 2024
  • 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
  • Water bottles fit into twin side pockets, while extra layers tuck into a stretchy dorsal pocket.
    — Elizabeth Miller, Outside Online, 27 May 2022
  • 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
  • Scanning electron microscope analysis showed that the dorsal spicules on the shell were rounded rather than pointed.
    — Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Unlike most frog species that rely on water for egg development, this species uses a dorsal pouch to carry and nurture its young.
    — Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 5 Apr. 2026
  • 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
  • Researchers observed differences in dorsal spicules, tiny thorn-like projections on the animal’s back.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 3 Mar. 2026
  • 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
  • Since each whale shark has a unique pattern of white spots and stripes on its dorsal surface, researchers were able to identify individual sharks and assess their injuries.
    — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Using scanning electron microscope analysis, the team observed differences in dorsal spicules on the shell.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 3 Mar. 2026
  • 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
  • Thanks to their poisonous dorsal spines, the lionfish are also extravagantly ugly.
    — Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Named for the distinctive black markings on the tips of their dorsal, pelvic, and tail fins, blacktip sharks primarily eat small fish, squid, and crustaceans, using quick bursts of speed to chase down prey.
    — Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 1 June 2025
  • 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
  • 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
  • Unlike the vast majority of frog species that rely on water for egg development, this miniature amphibian uses a dorsal pouch to carry and nurture its young.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 5 Apr. 2026
  • The brain’s dorsal attention network and ventral attention network are activated next.
    — Big Think, 29 Jan. 2026

dorsal

2 of 2 adjective
  • They are so named for the black color on the tips of their dorsal and pectoral fins.
    — David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 3 Sep. 2025
  • 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
  • If the leaves were shifted to the dorsal side of the stem, the smiley-face pattern emerged.
    — Jacob S. Suissa, The Conversation, 25 Nov. 2025
  • But sometimes hooking a minnow just under the dorsal fin or at the tail triggers strikes from more finicky crappies.
    — Bob McNally, Field & Stream, 20 Mar. 2023
  • 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
  • Please note from the trailer that Godzilla is now sporting glowing pink dorsal spines, eyes and atomic breath.
    — Andrew Torgan, CNN, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Conversely, Willamette chinook may be longer and a bit leaner, with less dorsal brilliance.
    — Bill Monroe, OregonLive.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Except the dorsal vagal complex hasn’t actually been proved to exist in humans.
    — Kristen Martin, Washington Post, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Researchers observed differences in dorsal spicules, tiny thorn-like projections on the animal’s back.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Alternatively, cut the top fillet in half lengthwise, slicing down the length of the fish with a knife to separate the dorsal meat from the belly meat.
    — Domenica Marchetti, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024
  • When a wave of dorsal/ventral muscle contractions proceeds from the back to the front of the animal, the animal is propelled backwards.
    — John Werner, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2024
  • True to their name, yellowfin tuna have bright yellow dorsal and anal fins with dark blue coloring on the back and upper sides that transitions into a silver belly.
    — David A. Brown, Field & Stream, 7 Mar. 2024
  • To begin, researchers tried to mimic sun exposure by shaving the dorsal skin of mice and applying cis-urocanic acid (dissolved in water).
    — Jay Kakade june 03, New Atlas, 3 June 2025
  • This series of footage shows (from left) the shark in the moments before impact, the boat striking the shark's dorsal area (center) and the shark at its resting place after the impact.
    — Jackie Wattles, CNN, 24 July 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • The frontal and parietal regions are part of the brain’s dorsal attention and executive control networks, which support our ability to plan and work toward goals.
    — Christian Wolf, Scientific American, 25 June 2025
  • By attacking them from below, the orcas avoid the whale sharks' tough dorsal skin that has denticles embedded on the outside, with thick connective tissue beneath it.
    — New Atlas, 29 Nov. 2024
  • Restylane® Lyft with Lidocaine is also intended for injection in the dorsal hand to correct volume loss.
    — Vogue, 1 Apr. 2019
  • From there, the vagus nerve’s signals travel to other important brain structures with bewildering Latin names, such as the locus coeruleus and the dorsal raphe nuclei.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 May 2015
  • 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
  • One cause of tinnitus is probably overactivity of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in the brain stem.
    — Anton Benz, Scientific American, 13 July 2023
  • Because of this dorsal/ventral bias in body bends, any normal living, moving individual tends to lie on either its left side or its right side when observed crossing a horizontal surface.
    — John Werner, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Detailed images of two consecutive dorsal vertebrae of the Istiorachis macarthurae spine.
    — Hannah Peart, NBC news, 22 Aug. 2025
  • 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
  • According to the center's Instagram post, the whale had external superficial cuts, with bruising present in the blubber and muscle in the areas of trauma on the dorsal side.
    — Sara Chernikoff, USA Today, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Meanwhile the dorsal auditory pathway, the brain area that connects the auditory cortex with movement areas, is where the rhythm apparently matches the basic beat.
    — Anna Von Hopffgarten, Scientific American, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Using its splayed pectoral and dorsal spines to fight back, the doctorfish eventually escaped—but not before Jensen managed to get the winning shot in the underwater category.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Jan. 2025
  • The dorsal column nuclei process and categorize touch information before sending it to cortical areas that discriminate among different types of touch.
    — Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Oct. 2025
  • 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

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.

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