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situated before or at the front of; fore (opposed to ).
going before in time or sequence; preceding; earlier:
events anterior to the outbreak of war.
Linguistics. (in distinctive feature analysis) articulated in the region extending from the alveolar ridge to the lips; alveolar, dental, or labial.
(in animals and embryos) pertaining to or toward the head or forward end of the body.
(in humans) pertaining to or toward the front plane of the body, equivalent to the ventral surface of quadrupeds.
Botany. on the front side and away from the main axis, as the lower lip of a flower.
Historical Examples

The ogive is, perhaps, very ancient; and authors dispute as to the anteriority of the Romanesque to the Gothic.
Bouvard and Pcuchet Gustave Flaubert

A simple physical mechanism may be a priori, in the sense of anteriority.
The Mind and the Brain Alfred Binet

This anteriority of nature is a commonplace in philosophy: thus one says that the decrees of God have an order among themselves.
Theodicy G. W. Leibniz

We should here draw a distinction between the two senses of the a priori: anteriority and superiority.
The Mind and the Brain Alfred Binet

On the other hand, anteriority and posteriority exist in dimension as well as in numbers.
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 Plotinos (Plotinus)

adjective
situated at or towards the front
earlier in time
(zoology) of or near the head end
(botany) (of part of a flower or leaf) situated farthest away from the main stem
adj.

1610s, Latin, literally “former,” comparative of ante “before” (see ante). Related: Anteriority.

anterior an·te·ri·or (ān-tēr’ē-ər)
adj.

Placed before or in front.

Occurring before in time; earlier.

Of or relating to the front surface of the body, especially of the position of one structure relative to another; ventral.

Near the head or rostral end of certain embryos.

n.
The front surface of the body.