lateral

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
lateral/ˈlatərəl/

▶adjective

• 1 of, at, towards, or from the side or sides.

• 2 Phonetics (of a consonant, especially the English clear l) pronounced with partial closure of the air passage by the tongue, which allows the breath to flow on one or both sides of the point of contact.

▶noun

• 1 a side part of something, especially a shoot or branch growing out from the side of a stem.

• 2 Phonetics a lateral consonant.

• 3 American Football a pass thrown sideways or back.

– derivatives
laterally adverb.

– origin ME: from L. lateralis, from latus, later- ‘side’.