coronal

[ noun kawr-uh-nl, kor-; adjective kuh-rohn-l, kawr-uh-nl, kor- ]

noun

1. a crown; coronet.
2. a garland.

adjective

1. of or relating to a coronal.
2. Anatomy.
   1. of or relating to a corona.
   2. (of a plane along the long axis of the body) lying in the direction of the coronal suture.
   3. Also lying in the direction of the frontal plane.
3. Phonetics. (of a speech sound) articulated with the tip of the tongue, especially in a retroflex position.
4. Linguistics. (in distinctive feature analysis) articulated with the blade of the tongue raised; dental, alveolar, or palato-alveolar.
5. of or relating to the tip of the tongue.

coronal

noun

1. poetic.
   a circlet for the head; crown
2. a wreath or garland
3. See coronal suture
   anatomy short for coronal suture

adjective

1. of or relating to a corona or coronal
2. See retroflex
   phonetics a less common word for retroflex

Other Words From

• coro·naled especially British, coro·nalled adjective
• co·ronal·ly adverb
• nonco·ronal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of coronal¹

1300–50; Middle English < Latin corōnālis, equivalent to Latin corōn ( a ) crown + -ālis -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of coronal¹

C16: from Late Latin corōnālis belonging to a crown

Example Sentences

From certain viewing angles, what had been wrinkles now instead looked like coronal loops.

From Science News For Students

Some coronal loops might be an illusion created by “wrinkles” of greater density in a curtain of plasma dubbed the coronal veil, researchers propose March 2 in Astrophysical Journal.

From Science News

On Friday, the sun’s surface erupted with outbursts of charged particles called “coronal mass ejections.”

From Popular-Science

Observations from the Parker Solar Probe hint that this flow comes from small coronal holes near the sun’s equator.

From Science News For Students

That material spews out of funnel-shaped openings in the sun’s magnetic field, called coronal holes, near the sun’s poles.

From Science News For Students

The birches and aspens are turned to trees of gold, and only the great oak keeps his coronal of green.

From Project Gutenberg

Haply her truant tresses mock Some coronal of shapelier block, To wit, the bounding billy-cock.

From Project Gutenberg

No coronal effect was noted, though a pulsating nebulous area appeared in front of the moon just before contact.

From Project Gutenberg

They placed a coronal of blooming orange flowers upon her faultless head.

From Project Gutenberg

To prevent this shave off the hair from the coronal commissures, and apply the following plaster to the place.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bouquet
• garland