Plantar vs. Dorsal: What’s the Difference?

• Plantar

  Standard anatomical terms of location deal unambiguously with the anatomy of animals, including humans.

  All vertebrates (including humans) have the same basic body plan – they are strictly bilaterally symmetrical in early embryonic stages and largely bilaterally symmetrical in adulthood. That is, they have mirror-image left and right halves if divided down the middle. For these reasons, the basic directional terms can be considered to be those used in vertebrates. By extension, the same terms are used for many other (invertebrate) organisms as well.

  While these terms are standardized within specific fields of biology, there are unavoidable, sometimes dramatic, differences between some disciplines. For example, differences in terminology remain a problem that, to some extent, still separates the terminology of human anatomy from that used in the study of various other zoological categories.

• Plantar (adjective)

  Relating to the sole of the foot.

  “a plantar wart”

• Dorsal (adjective)

  With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.

• Dorsal (adjective)

  Having only one sharp side.

• Dorsal (adjective)

  Relating to the top surface of the foot or hand.

• Dorsal (adjective)

  Produced using the dorsum of the tongue.

• Dorsal (adjective)

  Relating to the surface naturally inferior, as of a leaf.

• Dorsal (adjective)

  Relating to the surface naturally superior, as of a creeping hepatic moss.

• Dorsal (noun)

  A hanging, usually of rich stuff, at the back of a throne, altar, etc.

• Dorsal (noun)

  In snakes, any of the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, excluding the ventral scales.

• Dorsal (noun)

  A sound produced using the dorsum of the tongue.

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