Human Anatomy Terms

The following terms are those which are used to identify the location of parts of the human body in medicine and academic study. These terms are often used to describe a specific portion of a structure or to compare the locations of two different structures. "The hand is distal to the forearm" or "the medial portion of the frontal bone contains the frontal sinus" are examples of this. We have organized this list of terms by keeping similar pairs or groups of terms together instead of by alphabetical order so that you will find them easier to learn and remember.

Superior - toward the head

Inferior - away from the head

Anterior - the front of the body or body part

Posterior - the back of the body or body part

Medial - toward the midline that divides left and right

Lateral - to the side away from the midline

Proximal - closer to the torso

Distal - farther away from the torso

Anatomical position - standing erect, facing the observer, arms are at the sides with palms facing forward.

(Image taken from Gray's Anatomy Descriptive and Applied copywrighted 1946)