Anterior means 'in front' or 'in front of'.

 

A positional word

Anterior knee pain means pain in the front of the knee. Or a structure in the body can be anterior to another structure, eg the kneecap is anterior to the thighbone. The opposite of anterior is 'posterior'.

The word can also be added to other positional words, eg antero-medial, antero-lateral.

-

Dr Sheila Strover (Editor)
BSc (Hons), MB BCh, MBA

See biography...