frontal
adjective
Simple meaning
Directed against the front or at the main point or issue.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fruhntuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹʌntəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front.
Directed against the front or at the main point or issue.
meteorology
Of or relating to the front of an advancing mass of air
meteorology
Of or relating to a weather front.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front.
Used this way, frontal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- anterior , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The large cranial bone forming the front part of the cranium: includes the upper part of the orbits.
That part of the cerebral cortex in either hemisphere of the brain lying directly behind the forehead.
Either prominence of the frontal bone above each orbit.
Any of the convolutions of the outer surface of the frontal lobe of the cerebrum.
That part of the cerebral cortex in either hemisphere of the brain lying directly behind the forehead.
Surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The anterior part of the frontal lobe.
Surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain.
Surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain.
The anterior part of the frontal lobe.
Surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain.
The suture between two halves of the frontal bone (usually obliterated by the age of 6).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of or relating to or directed toward
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.