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Station wagon

A station wagon (US, also wagon) or estate car (UK, also estate) is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate, or tailgate), instead of a trunk/boot lid. The body style transforms a standard three-box design into a two-box design—to include an A, B, and C-pillar, as well as a D-pillar. Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a station wagon as "an automobile with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver and no luggage compartment but an area behind the seats into which suitcases, parcels, etc., can be loaded through a tailgate."

When a model range includes multiple body styles, such as sedan, hatchback, and station wagon, the models typically share their platform, drivetrain, and bodywork forward of the A-pillar, and usually the B-pillar. In 1969, Popular Mechanics said, "Station wagon-style ... follows that of the production sedan of which it is the counterpart. Most are on the same wheelbase, offer the same transmission and engine options, and the same comfort and convenience options."

Station wagons have evolved from their early use as specialized vehicles to carry people and luggage to and from a train station. The demand for station wagon body style has faded since the 2010s in favor of the crossover or SUV designs.

Name
Reflecting the original purpose of transporting people and luggage between country estates and train stations, The station wagon body style is called an "estate car" or "estate" in the United Kingdom or a "wagon" in Australia and New Zealand.

Either horse-drawn or automotive, the earliest use of the station wagon description would be considered to describe utility vehicles or light trucks. The depot hackney or taxi, often on a Model T chassis with an exposed wood body, most often found around railroad stations, was the predecessor of the station wagon body style in the United States. These early models with exposed wooden bodies became known as woodies. By the 1920s the status of the station wagon description changed to consider them as vehicles for passengers.

In Germany, the term "Kombi" is used, which is short for Kombinationskraftwagen ("combination motor vehicle"). "Kombi" is also the term used in Poland.

Manufacturers may designate station wagons across various model lines with a proprietary nameplate for marketing and advertising differentiation. Examples include "Avant", "Caravan", "Kombi", "Sports Tourer", "Sports Wagon", "Tourer", "Touring", and "Variant".

Comparison with hatchbacks

Station wagons and hatchbacks have in common a two-box design configuration, a shared interior volume for passengers and cargo as well as a hatch or rear door (often called a tailgate in the case of a station wagon) that is hinged at roof level. Folding rear seats designed to provide a larger space for cargo in place of passenger capacity, are also typical features for station wagons and hatchbacks.

Distinguishing features between hatchbacks and station wagons include:
 * D-pillar: Station wagons are more likely to have a D-pillar (hatchbacks and station wagons both have A-, B-, and C-pillars).
 * Cargo volume: Station wagons prioritize passenger and cargo volume—with windows beside the cargo volume. Of the two body styles, a station wagon roof (viewed in profile) more likely extends to the very rearmost of the vehicle, enclosing a full-height cargo volume —a hatchback design (especially a liftback version) is likely to have steeply sloping roofline behind the B- or C-Pillar, prioritizing style over interior volume or cargo capacity, sometimes having a shorter rear overhang and smaller side windows (or no windows at all).

Other differences are more variable and can potentially include:
 * Cargo floor contour: A station wagon often has a fold-flat floor (for increased cargo capacity), whereas a hatchback is more likely to have a cargo floor with a pronounced contour.
 * Seating: Some station wagons have three rows of seats, whereas a hatchback will have two at most. The rearmost row of seating in a station wagon is often located in the cargo area and can be front-facing, rear-facing, or side-facing.
 * Rear suspension: A station wagon may include a reconfigured rear suspension for additional load capacity and to minimize intrusion in the cargo volume.
 * Rear Door: Hatchbacks usually feature a top-hinged liftgate for cargo access, with variations ranging from a two-part liftgate to a complex tailgate that can function as a full tailgate or a trunk lid. Station wagons have also been equipped with numerous tailgate configurations. Hatchbacks may be called Liftbacks when the opening area is very sloped, and the door is lifted to open. A design director from General Motors has described the difference as "Where you break the roofline, at what angle, defines the spirit of the vehicle", he said. "You could have a 90-degree break in the back and have a station wagon."

It has become common for station wagons to use a platform shared with other body styles, resulting in many shared components (such as chassis, engine, transmission, bodywork forward of the A-pillar, interior features, and optional features) being used for the wagon, sedan, and hatchback variants of the model range.

Tailgate designs
Many modern station wagons have an upward-swinging, full-width, full-height rear door supported on gas springs—often where the rear window can swing up independently. A variety of other designs have been employed in the past.

Split gate
The split gate features an upward-swinging window and a downward-swinging tailgate, both manually operated. This configuration was typical in the 1920s through the 1940s, and remained common on many models into the 1960s.

Retractable window
In the early 1950s, tailgates with hand-cranked roll-down rear windows began to appear. Later in the decade, electric power was applied to the tailgate window so it could be operated from the driver's seat and by a key-activated switch in the tailgate. By the early 1970s, this arrangement was available on full-size, intermediate, and compact wagons. The lowered bottom hinged tailgate extended the cargo area floor and could serve as a picnic table for "tailgating."
 * Side hinge: A side-hinged tailgate that opened like a door was offered on some three-seat station wagons to make it easier for the back-row passengers to enter and exit their rear-facing seats.

Retractable roof
A station wagon design featuring a retractable rear roof section and a conventional rear tailgate with a window that rolled down and the gate opened down. The sliding roof section allowed the carrying of tall objects in the rear cargo area. This configuration appeared on the 1963–1966 Studebaker Wagonaire station wagon and the 1998-2009 GMC Envoy XUV SUV model.

Dual and tri-operating gates
In the United States, Ford's full-size station wagons for 1966 introduced a system marketed as "Magic Doorgate"—a conventional tailgate with retracting rear glass, where the tailgate could either fold down or pivot open on a side hinge—with the rear window retracted in either case. Competitors marketed their versions as a Drop and Swing or Dual Action Tailgate. For 1969, Ford incorporated a design that allowed the rear glass to remain up or down when the door pivoted open on its side hinge, marketing the system, engineered by Donald N. Frey as the "Three-Way Magic Doorgate".

Similar configurations became the standard feature on full-size and intermediate station wagons from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors Corporation (AMC). Some full-size GM wagons added a notch in the rear bumper that acted as a step plate; a small portion of the bumper was attached to the tailgate to fill the gap. When opened as a swinging door, this part of the bumper moved away, allowing the depression in the bumper to provide a "step" to ease entry; when the gate was opened by being lowered or raised to a closed position, the chrome section remained in place making the bumper "whole".

Clamshell
Full-size General Motors, from 1971 through 1976 station wagons (Chevrolet Kingswood, Townsman, Brookwood, Bel Air, Impala, and Caprice Estates; Pontiac Safari and Grand Safari; Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and the Buick Estate models) featured a 'clam shell' design marketed as the Glide-away tailgate, also called a "disappearing" tailgate because when open, the tailgate was entirely out of view. On the clamshell design, the rear power-operated glass slid up into the roof and the lower tailgate (with either manual or optional power operation), lowered below the load floor. Manually operated types included a lower tailgate counterbalanced by a torque rod similar to the torque rods used in holding a trunk lid open. It required a 35 lb push to lower the gate. Raising it required a 35 lb pull on a handhold integral to the top edge of the retractable gate. Power-assisted operation of both the upper glass and lower tailgate became standard equipment in later model years. Station wagons with this design were available with an optional third row of forward-facing seats accessed by the rear side doors and a folding second-row seat. They could accommodate 4 x sheets of plywood or other panels with the rear seats folded. The clamshell design required no increased footprint or operational area to open the cargo area. This enabled access even if the station wagon's rear was parked against a wall.

The GM design, as used in a Pontiac Grand Safari, with a forward-facing third-row seat and the clamshell tailgate, was less popular with consumers and was described as the "least convenient of all wagon arrangements" with difficult passenger egress and problematic tailgate operation in comparison to the 1974 AMC Ambassador, Dodge Monaco, and Mercury Colony Park, full-size station wagons conducted by Popular Science magazine. Subsequent GM full-size wagons reverted to the door/gate system for its full-size wagons.

Lift-gate

A simplified, one-piece lift-gate on smaller wagons. The AMC Hornet Sportabout was introduced for the 1972 model year and featured a "liftgate-style hatchback instead of swing-out or fold-down tailgate ... would set a precedent for liftgates in modern SUVs." The 1978-1996 GM's mid-size station wagons also returned to the upward-lifting rear window/gate as had been used in the 1940s.
 * Swing-up window: An upward-lifting, full-height, full-width rear door, where the window on the rear door can be opened independently from the rear door itself. The window is also opened upwards and is held on pneumatic struts. The Renault Laguna II station wagon and Ford Taurus wagon featured this arrangement.
 * Fold-up license plate: Wagons (including the Volvo Amazon wagon, early models of the Range Rover, and the Subaru Baja) had an upward folding hinged license plate attached to the lower tailgate of the split rear door. When the tailgate was folded down, the plate hung down and remained readable. The wagon versions of the Citroën DS, called the Break, Familiale, or Safari, had a different solution: two number plates were fitted to the tailgate at right angles to each other so one would be visible in either position.

Safety equipment
Cargo barriers may be used to prevent unsecured cargo from causing injuries in the event of sudden deceleration, collision, or a rollover.

Performance models
Performance models of station wagons have included the 1970 Ford Falcon (XY) 'Grand Sport' pack, the 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS-454 and the 1992 BMW M5 (E34).

The 1994 Audi RS2, developed with Porsche, has been described as the world's first performance station wagon. This was followed by the Audi RS4 and Audi RS6.

The 2006-2008 Dodge Magnum SRT-8 model brought together power and performance in a roomy station wagon.

Other German manufacturers have produced station wagon versions of their performance models, such as the Mercedes-AMG C63, Mercedes-AMG E63, BMW M5 (E60/E61), Volkswagen Golf R and Volkswagen Passat R36 wagons.

The Cadillac CTS-V Wagon introduced for the 2011 model year was considered the most potent production station wagon offered with a manual transmission, and the Corvette-engined version continued until 2014.

1910 to 1940: Origins and woodie wagons
The first station wagons were built in around 1910 by independent manufacturers producing wooden custom bodies for the Ford Model T chassis. They were initially called "depot hacks" because they worked around train depots as hacks (short for hackney carriage, as taxicabs were then known). They also came to be known as "carryalls" and "suburbans". Station wagons were initially considered commercial vehicles (rather than consumer automobiles) and the framing of the early station wagons was left unfinished, due to the commercial nature of the vehicles. Early station wagons were fixed-roof vehicles, but lacked the sides and glass that would generally enclose the passenger compartment, and included rudimentary benches for seating passengers. Instead of framed glass, side curtains of canvas could be unrolled. More rigid curtains could be snapped to protect passengers from outside elements. The roofs of "woodie" wagons were usually made of stretched canvas treated with a waterproofing dressing. The framing of the wooden bodies was sheathed in steel and coated with tinted lacquer for protection. These wooden bodies required constant maintenance: varnishes required re-coating, and expansion/contraction of the wood meant that bolts and screws needed periodic re-tightening.

Manufacture of the wooden bodies was initially outsourced to custom coachbuilders, because the production of the all-wood bodies was very time-consuming. Eventually, car manufacturers began producing their station wagon designs. In 1922, the Essex Closed Coach became the first mass-produced car to use a steel body (in this case, a fully enclosed sedan body style). In 1923, Star (a division of Durant Motors) became the first car company to offer a station wagon assembled on its production line (using a wooden wagon body shipped in from an outside supplier). One of the first builders of wagon bodies was the Stoughton Wagon Company from Wisconsin, which began putting custom wagon bodies on the Ford Model T chassis in 1919 and by 1929 the Ford Motor Company was the biggest producer of chassis' for station wagons. Since Ford owned its own hardwood forest and mills (at the Ford Iron Mountain Plant in what is today Kingsford, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula) it began supplying the wood components for the Model A station wagon. Also in 1929, J.T. Cantrell began supplying woodie bodies for Chrysler vehicles, which continued until 1931.

By the 1930s, station wagons had become expensive and well-equipped vehicles. When it was introduced in 1941, the Chrysler Town & Country was the most expensive car in the company's model range. The first all-steel station wagon body style was the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban. As part of the overall trend in the automotive industry, wooden bodies were superseded by all-steel bodies due to their strength, cost, and durability. The commercial vehicle status was also reflected on those vehicles' registrations For example, there were special "Suburban" license plates in Pennsylvania used well into the 1960s, long after station wagons became car-based.

1945 to 1970: Steel-bodied station wagons
The first all-steel station wagon was the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban, which was built on the chassis of a panel truck. However, most station wagons were produced with wooden bodies until after World War II.

When automobile production resumed after World War II, technological advances made all-steel station wagon bodies more practical, eliminating the cost, noise, and maintenance associated with wood bodies. The first mass-produced steel-bodied station wagon was the 1946 Willys Station Wagon, based on the chassis of the Jeep CJ-2A. In 1947, Crosley introduced a steel-bodied station wagon version of the Crosley CC Four.

The first postwar station wagon to be based on a passenger car chassis was the 1949 Plymouth Suburban, which used a two-door body style. Several manufacturers produced steel and wooden-bodied station wagons concurrently for several years. For example, Plymouth continued the production of wooden-bodied station wagons until 1950. The final wooden-bodied station built in the United States was the 1953 Buick Super Estate.

By 1951, most station wagons were being produced with all-steel bodies. Station wagons experienced the highest production levels in the United States from the 1950s through the 1970s as a result of the American Mid-20th century baby boom.

The late 1950s through the mid-1960s was also the period of greatest variation in body styles, with models available without a B-pillar (called hardtop or pillarless models) or with a B-pillar, both in 2-door and 4-door variants.

The 1956 Rambler was an all-new design, and the 4-door "Cross Country" featured the industry's first station wagon hardtop. However, the pillarless models could be expensive to produce, added wind noise, and created structural issues with body torque. GM eliminated the pillarless wagon from its lineup in 1959, while AMC and Ford exited the field beginning with their 1960 and 1961 vehicles, leaving Chrysler and Dodge with the body style through the 1964 model year.

1970 to 1990: Competition from minivans

The popularity of the station wagon—particularly full-size station wagons—in the United States was blunted by increased fuel prices caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Then, in 1983, the market for station wagons was further eroded by the Chrysler minivans, based on the K platform. While the K platform was also used for station wagon models (such as the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries), the minivan would soon eclipse them in popularity.

The CAFE standards provided an advantage to minivans (and later SUVs) over station wagons because the minivans and SUVs were classified as trucks in the United States and, therefore subject to less stringent fuel economy and emissions regulations. Station wagons remained popular in Europe and in locations where emissions and efficiency regulations did not distinguish between cars and light trucks.

1990 to present: Competition from SUVs

The emergence and popularity of SUVs, which closely approximate the traditional station wagon body style, was a blow. After low sales, the Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster, the last American full-size wagons, were discontinued in 1996. Smaller station wagons were marketed as lower-priced alternatives to SUVs and minivans. Domestic wagons also remained in the Ford, Mercury, and Saturn lines. However, after 2004, these compact station wagons also began to be phased out in the United States. The Ford Taurus wagon was discontinued in 2005, and the Ford Focus station wagon was discontinued in 2008. An exception to this trend was the Subaru Legacy and Subaru Outback station wagon models, which continue to be produced at the Subaru of Indiana plant. With other brands, the niche previously occupied by station wagons is now primarily filled with a similar style of Crossover SUV, which generally has a car underpinning and a wagon body.

Imported station wagons, despite remaining popular in other countries, struggled in the United States. European car manufacturers such as Audi, Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz continued to offer station wagons in their North American product ranges (marketed using the labels "Avant", "Touring", and "Estate" respectively). However, these vehicles had fewer trim and power train levels than their sedan counterparts. The Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG in Estate trim is a performance station wagon offered in the U.S. market. The station wagon variants of the smaller Mercedes-Benz C-Class line-up were dropped in 2007, and the BMW 5 Series Touring models were discontinued in 2010 due to slow sales in the United States, with only 400 wagons sold in 2009. In 2012, the Volvo V50 compact station wagon was withdrawn from the U.S. market due to poor sales.

The Cadillac CTS gave rise to a station wagon counterpart, the 2010 CTS Sportwagon, which defied the trend by offering almost as many trim levels as its sedan counterpart. The CTS wagon, particularly in the performance CTS-V trim, received positive reviews until it was discontinued in 2014.

In 2011, the Toyota Prius V introduced hybrid power to the compact wagon market, but was discontinued in 2017 to streamline the Toyota hybrid lineup and focus on the RAV4 Hybrid Crossover SUV.

The 2015 VW Golf Sportwagen was marketed as a sub-compact station wagon in the North American market. This model was withdrawn from the U.S. market after 2019.

In 2016, Volvo reintroduced a large wagon to the U.S. market with the Volvo V90, but only by special order.

Simulated wood paneling
As the wooden bodies were replaced by steel from 1945 until 1953, manufacturers applied wooden decorative trim to the steel-bodied wagons as a visual link to the previous wooden style. By the late 1950s, the wooden trim was replaced by "simulated wood" in the form of stick-on vinyl coverings. The woodgrain feature is not that the body is wood—or that it could ever be wood—rather, it is "totally honest in its artificiality."

The design element was also used on cars that were not station wagons, including sedans, pickup trucks, and convertibles.

Unique simulated wood designs included trim on the body pillars of the compact-size Nash Rambler station wagons that went up the roof's drip rail and around on the spit liftgate. The larger-sized Cross Country station wagon was available with bodyside wood trim that went unbroken up the C and D pillars to a thin strip on the roof above the side windows.

Ford marketing began using “Country Squire” with the 1950 model year for the station wagon body design.<ref From 1950 through 1991, their simulated wood trim differentiated the Ford Country Squire station wagon models from the lower trim versions. The "Squire" trim level was an available option in a few different Ford model ranges, including the Falcon Squire, Fairlane Squire, and the 1970s the Pinto Squire. The Squire was the highest trim level of any Ford Wagon and included additional exterior and better interior trims.

Other woodie-style wagon models produced in significant numbers include the 1984 through 1993 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that launched the luxury SUV market segment. Simulated wood-grain trim differentiated the top level models of the 1957-1991 Mercury Colony Park, 1968–1988 Chrysler Town & Country, 1970–1990 Buick Estate, 1971–1992 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and 1969–1972 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate.

Full-size wagons
From the 1950s until the 1990s, many full-size American station wagons could be optioned with a third row of seating in the cargo area (over the rear axle) for a total of nine seats. Before 1956, the third-row seats were forward-facing.

Chrysler's 1957 models had a roof too low to permit a forward-facing seat in the cargo area, so a rear-facing seat was used for the third row.

General Motors adopted the rear-facing third row for most models during 1959-1971 and 1977–1996. However, the 1964–1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and 1964–1969 Buick Sport Wagon featured raised roof lines beginning above the second-row seat and continuing to the rear tailgate, resulting in the third row of seats being forward-facing. General Motors also used forward-facing seats for the third row from 1971 through 1976 clam shell wagons.

The Ford and Mercury full-size wagons built after 1964 were available with four rows of seats, with the rear two rows in the cargo area facing each other. The third and fourth rows were designed for two people each (although these seats were relatively narrow in later models), giving a total seating capacity of ten people.

The trend since the 1980s for smaller station wagon bodies has limited the seating to two rows, resulting in a total capacity of five people, or six people, if a bench front seat is used. Since the 1990s, full-size station wagons have been largely replaced by SUVs with three-row seating, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford Expedition, Dodge Durango, Land Rover Defender 130 and the Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class, and BMW X7.

Two-door wagons
The first two-door station wagon was the 1946 Willys Jeep Station Wagon. Other early two-door station wagons were the 1951 Nash Rambler and the 1954 Studebaker Conestoga. In 1956, Studebaker introduced three new two-door wagons in Pelham, Parkview, and Pinehurst trims.

General Motors began producing two-door station wagons in 1955 with the "Chevrolet Handyman" and the "Pontiac Chieftain". General Motors also introduced the sportier Chevrolet Nomad and Pontiac Safari to their lineup in 1955. Ford began production of steel-bodied two-door station wagons in 1952 with the Ford Ranch Wagon. In 1956, Ford responded to the Nomad and Safari with the two-door wagon, the Ford Parklane. This was a one-year-only model, succeeded by the Ford Del Rio in 1957.

After the merger of Nash and Hudson, the new company, American Motors (AMC), reintroduced the two-door wagon in the "new" Rambler American line in 1958. It was "recycling" with only a few modifications from the original version and targeted buyers looking for "no-frills" economy. American Motors' strategy of reintroducing an old design made for two distinct model runs, one of few examples where such a strategy has been successful for an automobile manufacturer.

The Chevrolet Vega Kammback, introduced in September 1970, was the first U.S.-made four-seat wagon and the first two-door wagon from GM in six years. It shared its wheelbase and length with Vega coupe versions and was produced in the 1971–1977 model years.

American Motors offered a two-door wagon version of the AMC Pacer from 1977 through 1980.

The last two-door wagon available in America, the Geo Storm, was discontinued in 1993.

1930s to 1950s

Early estate cars were after-market conversions, with the new bodywork using a wooden frame and either steel or wooden panels. These wooden-bodied cars, produced until the 1960s, were among the most expensive vehicles. Since the 1930s, the term shooting-brake (originally a term for hunting vehicles) has been an alternative, if now rarely used, to the term for estates in the UK.

Later, estates were produced by vehicle manufacturers and included the 1937 Commer (based on the Hillman Minx Magnificent) designed for "operators requiring reliable light transport units" and the chassis for the Supervan "multipurpose utility vehicle, primarily designed for estate transport ... seating accommodation for five persons and the driver ... being quickly convertible to carry anything from hunting equipment to farm produce." Others included the 1952 Morris Minor Traveller, 1952 Morris Oxford Traveller, 1954 Hillman Husky, 1954 Austin A30 Countryman and 1955 Ford Squire. Most of these models were two-door estates, and several models were built on the chassis of relatively small cars.

Manufacturers often chose a specific model name to apply to all their estate cars as a marketing exercise - for example, Austin used the Countryman name, and Morris called it Traveller. Some estates were closely derived from existing commercial van models, such as the Austin A30/35 Countryman and the Hillman Husky. Others included the Austin Cambridge Countryman and the Standard Ten Companion.

Rover and Austin produced 4×4 canvas-topped utility vehicles in the 1950s that were available in estate body styles sold as "Station Wagons". They incorporated better seating and trim than standard editions with options such as heaters. Early advertising for the Land Rover version took the name literally, showing the vehicle collecting people and goods from a railway station.

Despite the popularity of station wagons in America, estate offerings in the U.K. from Ford and Vauxhall were limited to factory-approved aftermarket conversions of the Ford Consul and Vauxhall Cresta until the factory-built Vauxhall Victor wagon was introduced in 1958.

1960s to 1970s

One of the smallest estates ever produced was the Morris Mini Traveller / Austin Mini Countryman, introduced in 1960.

Ford's first factory-built estate was the 1963 Ford Cortina.

The 1967 Hillman Husky station wagon version of the Hillman Imp was unusual in being a rear-engined estate.

Ford and Vauxhall produced factory-built estate variants of all three of their respective core models (small-, family- and large-size cars) by the 1970s. The FD- and FE-Series Vauxhall Victors, built between 1966 and 1978, were large cars and featured estate models in the style of an American station wagon with front and rear bench seats and large-capacity petrol engines.

Other estates sold in the United Kingdom included the Morris 1100 (introduced in 1966), Vauxhall Viva (introduced 1967), Ford Escort (introduced in 1968), and Vauxhall Chevette (introduced 1976).

1980s to present
In the decades following, Vauxhall has produced the Astra family car from 1980 continuing till now in estate form, as well as other estate versions of larger cars such as the Cavalier, replaced in 1995 by the Vectra which itself was replaced in 2008 by the Insignia, staying in production till 2022. The second generation Insignia was also made in Country Tourer form, a slightly raised crossover version of the standard Insignia Sports Tourer. Between 1978 and 2003, they also sold estate versions of two executive cars, the Carlton and the Omega. Vauxhall also produced the Signum in the mid-2000s as an executive take on a Vectra estate, and it was only available in such a body style; the Insignia VXR, a high-performance variant of the Insignia available in its first generation could also be had as an estate, with a V6 engine producing 321 bhp.

Germany
Germany is the largest market for station wagons in the world, with around 600,000 to 700,000 vehicles sold each year—amounting to 20% of all car sales. German-designed station wagons have been produced by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and Volkswagen. Some larger station wagon models are available with a third row of seats, such as the rear-facing jump seat for two passengers in the cargo area of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon.

In 1961, Volkswagen introduced the two-door "Variant" body style of the Volkswagen Type 3 (also known as the Volkswagen 1500—later the Volkswagen 1600). The Type 3's rear-engine layout was retained for the station wagon models, but the engine profile was flattened, resulting in a small car offering interior room and trunk space in the front. The model was offered through the 1973 model year.

Station wagons produced in East Germany include the 1956–1965 Wartburg 311/312/313, the 1963–1990 Trabant 601 Universal, and the 1966–1988 Wartburg 353 Tourist.

France
In France, almost all station wagon models are called a "Break".

The first station wagon produced by a French manufacturer was the Citroën Traction Avant Familiale model introduced in 1935. The first Peugeot station wagon was the Peugeot 203, introduced in 1950.

In 1958, the Citroën ID Break (known as the Safari in English-speaking countries) was introduced, being larger than other French station wagon models and of similar size to the contemporary full-size station wagons from the United States. It had a seating capacity of eight people, consisting of two front-facing bench seats and two folding inward-facing seats in the cargo area. The 'Familiale' version had a front bench seat, a forward-facing three-space bench seat in the middle, and a folding forward-facing three-seat bench in the rear, providing a versatile nine-seat car. The Citroën ID also had a two-part tailgate and a hydropneumatic suspension that allowed a self-leveling ride height and automatic brake biasing regardless of the load carried. The car could also 'kneel' to the ground to facilitate loading heavy or large items. The successors to the ID, the Citroën CX and Citroën XM, continued to be among the largest station wagon cars produced in Europe. Nevertheless, the model was discontinued in 2000, and a station wagon version was unavailable for its Citroën C6 successor.

The Peugeot 404, introduced in 1960, offered a conventional large station wagon alternative to the innovative Citroëns. Its replacement, the 505 was available in both five-seat and seven-seat 'Familiale' versions. As with the Citroëns, changing demands in the French car market led to the end of the large Peugeot station wagon models in the mid-1990s, with the smaller Peugeot 406 becoming the largest station wagon model in the range from 1995. In a similar situation to the United States, the decline of traditional Break and Familiale models in France was in no small part due to the introduction of the minivan in the form of the Renault Espace in 1984.

Sweden
The first station wagon produced in Sweden was the Volvo Duett, introduced in 1953. The Duett two-door wagon was conceived as a dual-function delivery van and people-carrier and is based on the chassis of the PV444 and PV544 sedans.

In 1962, the Volvo Duett was supplemented by a larger but lower Amazon, which has a four-door body and a horizontal split tailgate. Volvo continued production of station wagons through the Volvo 145 (introduced in 1967), then the Volvo 200 Series (introduced in 1974), and the Volvo 700 Series (introduced in 1985). In many markets, the station wagon models of the 700 Series significantly outsold the sedan models. In 1990, the 700 Series was replaced by the Volvo 900 Series, which was sold alongside the smaller Volvo 850 wagon that was introduced one year later. The 900 Series ended production in 1998, and its successor (the Volvo S80) did not include any wagon models. Volvo station wagons produced since the mid-1990s are the Volvo V40, Volvo V50, Volvo V60, Volvo V70, and Volvo V90, with the V60 and V90 models currently in production.

Saab began producing station wagons in 1959, in the form of the Saab 95 two-door wagon, which was based on the Saab 93 sedan. Following a hiatus in station wagon production since the Saab 95 ended production in 1978, the company introduced the four-door Saab 9-5 station wagon in 1997, which was produced until 2010. In 2005 a 'Sportwagon' version of the Saab 9-3 was introduced and produced until 2011.

In 2017 station wagons accounted for 31% of all sold cars.

Switzerland
In 1983, station wagons represented 15% of the passenger car market, reflecting a trend throughout Europe of increasing popularity through the 1980s, with the vehicles becoming less cargo-oriented.

Japan
The first Japanese station wagon was the 1961 Isuzu Bellel four-door wagon, based on a compact sedan chassis. This was followed by the 1963 Mazda Familia, 1966 Toyota Corolla, 1967 Isuzu Florian, 1969 Mitsubishi Galant, 1973 Mitsubishi Lancer and 1974 Honda Civic wagons. However, Japanese manufacturers did not build station wagons in large volumes until the 1980s when the body style, along with SUVs and mInivans, boomed in popularity as leisure vehicles.

Models marketed as passenger station wagons in export markets were often sold as utilitarian "van" models in the home market. Some were not updated in a model's life in Japan for consecutive generations. For example, a sedan might have a model life of four years, but the wagon was not updated for up to eight years (such as the Toyota Corolla wagon built from 1979 until 1987 and the 1987–1996 Mazda Capella wagon). Station wagons remain popular in Japan, although they are in slow decline as the SUVs and minivans have taken over a large portion of this market since the 2000s, with manufacturers replacing their station wagons with equivalent hatchbacks or crossover SUVs (i.e., Subaru replaced the wagon with the hatchback for their third-generation Impreza range). Several Japanese compact MPVs such as Subaru Exiga and Toyota Prius α take elements from older station wagons while being more in line with their corresponding category.

Korea
South Korean manufacturers do not have a strong tradition of producing station wagons. The first station wagon by the South Korean manufacturer was released way back in 1995 as the Hyundai Avante Touring (Lantra Sportswagon), followed in early 1996 as the Kia Pride station wagon. Daewoo Motors followed suit a year later with the first-generation Nubira.

South Korean manufacturer Kia produces both the Cee'd and Optima station wagons designated as Sportswagons with sister company Hyundai offering station wagon versions of the i30 and i40.

Australia

The first Australian-designed car was built in 1948, but locally designed station wagons did not appear until nine years later when the 1957 Holden FE was introduced. Holden's main competitor, the Ford Falcon (XK) introduced wagon models in 1960.

Ford and Holden produced wagon models based on each generation of their large sedan platforms until 2010. Other wagons produced in Australia include the smaller Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna. The Ford and Holden wagons were usually built on a longer wheelbase than their sedan counterparts until the introduction of the Holden Commodore (VE), which switched to sharing the sedan's shorter wheelbase.

Ford ceased production of wagons in Australia when the Ford Falcon (BF) ended production in 2010, primarily due to the declining station wagon and large car market, but also following the 2004 introduction and sales success of the Ford Territory SUV. Production of wagons in Australia ceased in 2017 when the Holden Commodore (VF) ended production.

title: Station wagon


text:
Rising

Rising may refer to:
 * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique)
 * Elevation
 * Short for Uprising, a rebellion
 * Rising, an annual Arts festival in Melbourne

Film and TV

 * "Rising" (Stargate Atlantis), television series episode
 * Rising (web series), a news show produced by The Hill, hosted by Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave.
 * "Rising", 2001 television series episode, see list of Dark Angel episodes

Books

 * Rising (novel), the last novel of R. C. Hutchinson

Places

 * Rising, Illinois, United States, an unincorporated community
 * Rising City, Nebraska, United States, a village
 * Rising River, a river in California
 * Rising, the flow of water to the surface from underground - see spring (hydrosphere)

Surname

 * Melbourne Rising, an Australian rugby union team
 * John Rising (1756–1815), English portrait and subject painter
 * Linda Rising, American author, lecturer and consultant
 * Nelson Rising, American businessman
 * Pop Rising (1877-1938), American Major League Baseball player in 1905

Albums

 * Rising (Donovan album), 1990
 * Rising (Great White album), 2009
 * Rising (Mxmtoon album), 2022
 * Rising (Rainbow album), 1976
 * Rising (Stuck Mojo album) or the title song, 1998
 * Rising (Yoko Ono album) or the title song, 1995
 * Rising, by the Go Set, 2008
 * Rising, by Seraphim, 2007
 * Rising, by the Up, 2010

Songs

 * "Rising", by Lhasa from Lhasa, 2009
 * "Rising", by Lovebites from Clockwork Immortality, 2018

Other uses

 * Rising Auto, an automotive brand of SAIC Motor

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rising


text:
Harold Stephen Black

Harold Stephen Black (April 14, 1898 – December 11, 1983) was an American electrical engineer, who revolutionized the field of applied electronics by inventing the negative feedback amplifier in 1927. To some, his invention is considered the most important breakthrough of the twentieth century in the field of electronics, since it has a wide area of application. This is because all electronic devices (vacuum tubes, bipolar transistors and MOS transistors) are inherently nonlinear, but they can be made substantially linear with the application of negative feedback. Negative feedback works by sacrificing gain for higher linearity (or in other words, smaller distortion/intermodulation). By sacrificing gain, it also has an additional effect of increasing the bandwidth of the amplifier. However, a negative feedback amplifier can be unstable such that it may oscillate. Once the stability problem is solved, the negative feedback amplifier is extremely useful in the field of electronics. Black published a famous paper, Stabilized feedback amplifiers, in 1934.

Biography
He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1898. He went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for his first degree. Subsequently, he received a B.S.S. in Electrical Engineering from WPI in 1921 and then joined Western Electric, which was the manufacturing arm of AT&T. He joined Bell Labs (1925), where he was a member of technical staff until his retirement (1963).

Black started writing his autobiography with the tentative title "Before the ferry docked". However, he died in December 1983 at age 85 before he could finish it.

Work
Amplifiers are unavoidably non-linear. Therefore, every time a signal is amplified in a telecommunications network, which can happen dozens of times in a circuit, noise and distortion are added. Black first invented the feed-forward amplifier which compares the input and output signals and then negatively amplifies the distortion and combines the two signals, canceling out some of the distortion. This amplifier design improved, but did not solve, the problems of transcontinental telecommunication.

After years of work Black invented the negative feedback amplifier which uses negative feedback to reduce the gain of a high-gain, non-linear amplifier and makes it act as a low-gain, linear amplifier with much lower noise and distortion. The Negative feedback amplifier allowed Bell system to reduce overcrowding of lines and extend its long-distance network by means of carrier telephony. It enabled the design of accurate fire-control systems in World War II, and it formed the basis of early operational amplifiers, as well as precise, variable-frequency audio oscillators.

According to Black he got his inspiration to invent the negative feedback amplifier when he was traveling from New Jersey to New York City by taking a ferry to cross the Hudson River in August 1927. Having nothing to write on he sketched his thoughts on a misprinted page of the New York Times and then signed and dated it. At that time, Bell Laboratories headquarters were located in 463 West Street, Manhattan, New York City instead of New Jersey and he lived in New Jersey such that he took the ferry every morning to go to work.

Fifty years after his 1927 invention, he published an article in IEEE Spectrum regarding the historical background of his invention. He published a classical paper on negative feedback amplifier in 1934, which has been re-printed in the Proceedings of IEEE two times in 1984 and 1999 Inside his 1934 classical paper "Stabilized feed-back amplifiers", he mentioned Harry Nyquist's work on stability criterion because a negative feedback amplifier can be unstable and oscillate. Thus, with the help of Nyquist's theory, he managed to demonstrate a stable negative feedback amplifier which can be used in reality. Bernard Friedland wrote an introduction for the 1999 re-print in Proc. IEEE. James E. Brittain wrote about him in 1997. An obituary regarding Black was published by IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control in 1984.

He also worked on pulse-code modulation and wrote a book on "Modulation Theory" (Van Nostrand, 1953). He held many patents the most famous of which was US Patent 2,102,671 "Wave Translation System", which was issued to Bell Laboratories in 1937, covering the negative feedback amplifier.

Awards

 * National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee number 25, 1981
 * Robert H. Goddard Award from WPI 1981
 * AIEE Lamme Medal 1958
 * D. Eng. degree (honorary) from WPI 1955
 * Research Corporation Scientific Award 1952
 * John H. Potts Memorial Award of the Audio Engineering Society
 * John Price Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute
 * Certificate of Appreciation from the US War Department.
 * WPI gives away the annual Harold S. Black Scholarship (1992-)

title: Harold Stephen Black


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Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is the debut studio album by American/British rock band Rainbow, released in 1975.

Recording
During studio sessions in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12 December 1974, Blackmore originally planned to record the solo single "Black Sheep of the Family"- a cover of a track by the band Quatermass from 1970 – and the newly composed "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", which was to be the B-side. Other musicians involved included singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll of blues rock band Elf, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to extend the sessions to a full album.

The other members of Elf, keyboardist Micky Lee Soule and bassist Craig Gruber, were used for the recording of the album in Musicland Studios in Munich, West Germany during February and March, 1975. Though it was originally planned to be a solo album, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and later progressed as a new band project. Blackmore and Dio did promotional work for the album. Shortly after the album was released, Soule quit the band, while Gruber and Driscoll were sacked. This first line-up never performed live, and the live photos used in the album art are of Blackmore while with Deep Purple and of Elf playing live.

The last track of the album, "Still I'm Sad", is an instrumental cover of a song by the Yardbirds from their 1965 album Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds. A version featuring vocals subsequently appeared on Rainbow's live album On Stage and their 1995 studio album Stranger in Us All.

Release
The original vinyl release had a gate-fold sleeve, although the later budget re-issue on Polydor was reduced to a single sleeve. On the cassette version of the album, Side One features the last five tracks, while Side Two plays the first four. On the case insert and on the cassette itself, "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is written as "Sixteen Century Greensleeves".

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was re-issued on CD in re-mastered form in the US in April 1999. The European release followed later in the year.

Vocalist Ronnie James Dio considered this release his favourite Rainbow album.

Despite the title implying the record being a Ritchie Blackmore solo release, in later years Blackmore has jokingly stated that Dio's contributions warranted a re-titling of "Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio's Rainbow".

Reception
The album was praised in British contemporary reviews for its fantasy/heroic-like lyrical content and the innovative rock style. However, the reviewer for the American magazine Rolling Stone disparaged the album, describing Blackmore's playing "listless and bored in relation to past performances" and the band "a completely anonymous group."

Modern reviews have a similar tenor. AllMusic reviewer wrote that the album have "a few listenable tracks", with young Dio "at his best when he fully gives in to his own and Blackmore's medieval fantasy leanings in hard-rocking tracks like 'Sixteenth Century Greensleeves' and 'Man on the Silver Mountain'", but remarked how the band became "a true embarrassment when they try to lighten up and boogie down." Canadian journalist Martin Popoff noticed that on this album Blackmore "confirms the creative vacuum that was much in evidence towards his last years with Purple", offering a "boring, dated, diluted and largely illogical smorgasbord of guitar rock stylings, all inespressively played over". He also criticized Martin Birch's dull and inexpensive production, "which ruins what is already a limp noodle of a record" and saved only the songs "Man on the Silver Mountain" and "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", "which approach the worthiness of Rising".

Covers
The album's songs have been performed by subsequent Rainbow line-ups and covered by other bands.

 * Rainbow included an updated version of "Still I'm Sad" on their 1995 album Stranger in Us All.
 * Blackmore's Night have released a folk rock cover version of "Self Portrait" on their second studio album Under a Violet Moon in 1999, and "Temple of the King" on 2013's Dancer and the Moon. They also performed a live cover of "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" (titled as "16th Century Greensleeves") on their 2002 live album Past Times with Good Company.

Track listing
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio except where noted.

Personnel

 * Rainbow
 * Ronnie James Dio – lead vocals, producer
 * Ritchie Blackmore – guitar, producer
 * Micky Lee Soule – piano, mellotron, clavinet, organ
 * Craig Gruber – bass
 * Gary Driscoll – drums

 * Additional musicians
 * Shoshana – backing vocals on "Catch the Rainbow" and "Still I'm Sad"

 * Production
 * Martin Birch – producer, engineer, mixing

title: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow


text:
Anatomical terms of location

Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provides a definition of what is at the front ("anterior"), behind ("posterior") and so on. As part of defining and describing terms, the body is described through the use of anatomical planes and anatomical axes.

The meaning of terms that are used can change depending on whether an organism is bipedal or quadrupedal. Additionally, for some animals such as invertebrates, some terms may not have any meaning at all; for example, an animal that is radially symmetrical will have no anterior surface, but can still have a description that a part is close to the middle ("proximal") or further from the middle ("distal").

International organisations have determined vocabularies that are often used as standards for subdisciplines of anatomy. For example, Terminologia Anatomica for humans and Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria for animals. These allow parties that use anatomical terms, such as anatomists, veterinarians, and medical doctors, to have a standard set of terms to communicate clearly the position of a structure.

Introduction

Standard anatomical and zoological terms of location have been developed, usually based on Latin and Greek words, to enable all biological and medical scientists, veterinarians, doctors and anatomists to precisely delineate and communicate information about animal bodies and their organs, even though the meaning of some of the terms often is context-sensitive. Much of this information has been standardised in internationally agreed vocabularies for humans (Terminologia Anatomica) and animals (Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria).

Different terms are used for groups of creatures with different body layouts, such as bipeds (creatures that stand on two feet, such as humans) and quadrupeds. The reasoning is that the neuraxis is different between the two groups, and so is what is considered the standard anatomical position, such as how humans tend to be standing upright and with their arms reaching forward. Thus, the "top" of a human is the head, whereas the "top" of a dog would be the back, and the "top" of a flounder may be on either the left or right side. Unique terms are also used to describe invertebrates as well, because of their wider variety of shapes and symmetry.

Standard anatomical position

Because animals can change orientation with respect to their environment, and because appendages like limbs and tentacles can change position with respect to the main body, terms to describe position need to refer to an animal when it is in its standard anatomical position. This means descriptions as if the organism is in its standard anatomical position, even when the organism in question has appendages in another position. This helps avoid confusion in terminology when referring to the same organism in different postures. In humans, this refers to the body in a standing position with arms at the side and palms facing forward, with thumbs out and to the sides.

Combined terms

Many anatomical terms can be combined, either to indicate a position in two axes simultaneously or to indicate the direction of a movement relative to the body. For example, "anterolateral" indicates a position that is both anterior and lateral to the body axis (such as the bulk of the pectoralis major muscle).

In radiology, an X-ray image may be said to be "anteroposterior", indicating that the beam of X-rays passes from their source to patient's anterior body wall through the body to exit through posterior body wall. Combined terms were once generally hyphenated, but the modern tendency is to omit the hyphen.

Planes

Anatomical terms describe structures with relation to four main anatomical planes:

 * 1) The median plane, which divides the body into left and right. This passes through the head, spinal cord, navel, and, in many animals, the tail.
 * 2) The sagittal planes, which are  to the median plane.
 * 3) The frontal plane, also called the coronal plane, which divides the body into front and back.
 * 4) The horizontal plane, also known as the transverse plane, which is perpendicular to the other two planes. In a human, this plane is parallel to the ground; in a quadruped, this divides the animal into anterior and posterior sections.

Axes

The axes of the body are lines drawn about which an organism is roughly symmetrical. To do this, distinct ends of an organism are chosen, and the axis is named according to those directions. An organism that is symmetrical on both sides has three main axes that intersect at right angles. An organism that is round or not symmetrical may have different axes. Example axes are:

 * The anteroposterior axis
 * The cephalocaudal axis
 * The dorsoventral axis

Examples of axes in specific animals are shown below.

Modifiers

Several terms are commonly seen and used as prefixes:

 * Sub- is used to indicate something that is beneath, or something that is subordinate to or lesser than. For example, subcutaneous means beneath the skin.
 * Hypo- is used to indicate something that is beneath. For example, the hypoglossal nerve supplies the muscles beneath the tongue.
 * Infra- is used to indicate something that is within or below. For example, the infraorbital nerve runs within the orbit.
 * Inter- is used to indicate something that is between. For example, the intercostal muscles run between the ribs.
 * Super- or Supra- is used to indicate something that is above something else. For example, the supraorbital ridges are above the eyes.

Other terms are used as suffixes, added to the end of words:
 * -ad and -ab  are used to indicate that something is towards (-ad) or away from (-ab) something else. For example, "distad" means "in the distal direction", and "distad of the femur" means "beyond the femur in the distal direction". Further examples may include cephalad (towards the cephalic end), craniad, and proximad.

Superior and inferior
Superior describes what is above something and inferior  describes what is below it. For example, in the anatomical position, the most superior part of the human body is the head and the most inferior is the feet. As a second example, in humans, the neck is superior to the chest but inferior to the head.

Anterior and posterior
Anterior describes what is in front, and posterior  describes what is to the back of something. For example, for a dog the nose is anterior to the eyes and the tail is considered the most posterior part; for many fish the gill openings are posterior to the eyes but anterior to the tail.

Medial and lateral
These terms describe how close something is to the midline, or the medial plane. Lateral describes something to the sides of an animal, as in "left lateral" and "right lateral". Medial describes structures close to the midline, or closer to the midline than another structure. For example, in a human, the arms are lateral to the torso. The genitals are medial to the legs. Temporal has a similar meaning to lateral but is restricted to the head.

The terms "left" and "right" are sometimes used, or their Latin alternatives (dexter; sinister). However, it is preferred to use more precise terms where possible.

Terms derived from lateral include:

 * Contralateral : on the side opposite to another structure. For example, the right arm and leg are controlled by the left, contralateral, side of the brain.
 * Ipsilateral : on the same side as another structure. For example, the left arm is ipsilateral to the left leg.
 * Bilateral : on both sides of the body. For example, bilateral orchiectomy means removal of testes on both sides of the body.
 * Unilateral : on one side of the body. For example, a stroke can result in unilateral weakness, meaning weakness on one side of the body.

Varus and valgus  are terms used to describe a state in which a part further away is abnormally placed towards (varus) or away from (valgus) the midline.

Proximal and distal

The terms proximal and distal  are used to describe parts of a feature that are close to or distant from the main mass of the body, respectively. Thus the upper arm in humans is proximal and the hand is distal.

"Proximal and distal" are frequently used when describing appendages, such as fins, tentacles, and limbs. Although the direction indicated by "proximal" and "distal" is always respectively towards or away from the point of attachment, a given structure can be either proximal or distal in relation to another point of reference. Thus the elbow is distal to a wound on the upper arm, but proximal to a wound on the lower arm.

The terms are also applied to internal anatomy, such as to the reproductive tract of snails. Unfortunately, different authors use the terms in opposite senses. Some consider "distal" as further from a point of origin near the centre of the body and others as further from where the organ reaches the body's surface; or other points of origin may be envisaged.

This terminology is also employed in molecular biology and therefore by extension is also used in chemistry, specifically referring to the atomic loci of molecules from the overall moiety of a given compound.

Central and peripheral
Central and peripheral refer to the distance towards and away from the centre of something. That might be an organ, a region in the body, or an anatomical structure. For example, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous systems.

Central describes something close to the centre. For example, the great vessels run centrally through the body; many smaller vessels branch from these.

Peripheral (, originally from Ancient Greek) describes something further away from the centre of something. For example, the arm is peripheral to the body.

Superficial and deep
These terms refer to the distance of a structure from the surface.

Deep describes something further away from the surface of the organism. For example, the external oblique muscle of the abdomen is deep to the skin. "Deep" is one of the few anatomical terms of location derived from Old English rather than Latin – the anglicised Latin term would have been "profound".

Superficial describes something near the outer surface of the organism. For example, in skin, the epidermis is superficial to the subcutis.

Dorsal and ventral
These two terms, used in anatomy and embryology, describe something at the back (dorsal) or front/belly (ventral) of an organism.

The dorsal surface of an organism refers to the back, or upper side, of an organism. If talking about the skull, the dorsal side is the top.

The ventral surface refers to the front, or lower side, of an organism.

For example, in a fish, the pectoral fins are dorsal to the anal fin, but ventral to the dorsal fin.

Rostral, cranial, and caudal

Specific terms exist to describe how close or far something is to the head or tail of an animal. To describe how close to the head of an animal something is, three distinct terms are used:

 * Rostral describes something situated toward the oral or nasal region, or in the case of the brain, toward the tip of the frontal lobe.
 * Cranial or cephalic  describes how close something is to the head of an organism.
 * Caudal describes how close something is to the trailing end of an organism.

For example, in horses, the eyes are caudal to the nose and rostral to the back of the head.

These terms are generally preferred in veterinary medicine and not used as often in human medicine. In humans, "cranial" and "cephalic" are used to refer to the skull, with "cranial" being used more commonly. The term "rostral" is rarely used in human anatomy, apart from embryology, and refers more to the front of the face than the superior aspect of the organism. Similarly, the term "caudal" is used more in embryology and only occasionally used in human anatomy. This is because the brain is situated at the superior part of the head whereas the nose is situated in the anterior part. Thus, the "rostrocaudal axis" refers to a C shape (see image).

Anatomical landmarks
The location of anatomical structures can also be described in relation to different anatomical landmarks. They are used in anatomy, surface anatomy, surgery, and radiology.

Structures may be described as being at the level of a specific spinal vertebra, depending on the section of the vertebral column the structure is at. The position is often abbreviated. For example, structures at the level of the fourth cervical vertebra may be abbreviated as "C4", at the level of the fourth thoracic vertebra "T4", and at the level of the third lumbar vertebra "L3". Because the sacrum and coccyx are fused, they are not often used to provide the location.

References may also take origin from superficial anatomy, made to landmarks that are on the skin or visible underneath. For example, structures may be described relative to the anterior superior iliac spine, the medial malleolus or the medial epicondyle.

Anatomical lines are used to describe anatomical location. For example, the mid-clavicular line is used as part of the cardiac exam in medicine to feel the apex beat of the heart.

Mouth and teeth
Special terms are used to describe the mouth and teeth. Fields such as osteology, palaeontology and dentistry apply special terms of location to describe the mouth and teeth. This is because although teeth may be aligned with their main axes within the jaw, some different relationships require special terminology as well; for example, teeth also can be rotated, and in such contexts terms like "anterior" or "lateral" become ambiguous. For example, the terms "distal" and "proximal" are also redefined to mean the distance away or close to the dental arch, and "medial" and "lateral" are used to refer to the closeness to the midline of the dental arch. Terms used to describe structures include "buccal" and "palatal"  referring to structures close to the cheek and hard palate respectively.

Hands and feet

Several anatomical terms are particular to the hands and feet.

Additional terms may be used to avoid confusion when describing the surfaces of the hand and what is the "anterior" or "posterior" surface. The term "anterior", while anatomically correct, can be confusing when describing the palm of the hand; Similarly is "posterior", used to describe the back of the hand and arm. This confusion can arise because the forearm can pronate and supinate and flip the location of the hand. For improved clarity, the directional term palmar is commonly used to describe the front of the hand, and dorsal is the back of the hand. For example, the top of a dog's paw is its dorsal surface; the underside, either the palmar (on the forelimb) or the plantar (on the hindlimb) surface. The palmar fascia is palmar to the tendons of muscles which flex the fingers, and the dorsal venous arch is so named because it is on the dorsal side of the foot.

In humans, volar can also be used synonymously with palmar to refer to the underside of the palm, but plantar is used exclusively to describe the sole. These terms describe location as palmar and plantar; For example, volar pads are those on the underside of hands or fingers; the plantar surface describes the sole of the heel, foot or toes.

Similarly, in the forearm, for clarity, the sides are named after the bones. Structures closer to the radius are radial, structures closer to the ulna are ulnar, and structures relating to both bones are referred to as radioulnar. Similarly, in the lower leg, structures near the tibia (shinbone) are tibial and structures near the fibula are fibular (or peroneal).

Rotational direction
Anteversion and retroversion are complementary terms describing an anatomical structure that is rotated forwards (towards the front of the body) or backwards (towards the back of the body), relative to some other position. They are particularly used to describe the curvature of the uterus.
 * Anteversion describes an anatomical structure being tilted further forward than normal, whether pathologically or incidentally. For example, a woman's uterus typically is anteverted, tilted slightly forward. A misaligned pelvis may be anteverted, that is to say tilted forward to some relevant degree.
 * Retroversion describes an anatomical structure tilted back away from something. An example is a retroverted uterus.

Other directional terms
Several other terms are also used to describe location. These terms are not used to form the fixed axes. Terms include:

 * Axial : around the central axis of the organism or the extremity. Two related terms, "abaxial" and "adaxial", refer to locations away from and toward the central axis of an organism, respectively
 * Luminal : on the—hollow—inside of an organ's lumen (body cavity or tubular structure); adluminal is towards, abluminal is away from the lumen. Opposite to outermost (the adventitia, serosa, or the cavity's wall).
 * Parietal : pertaining to the wall of a body cavity. For example, the parietal peritoneum is the lining on the inside of the abdominal cavity. Parietal can also refer specifically to the parietal bone of the skull or associated structures.
 * Terminal at the extremity of a usually projecting structure. For example, "...an antenna with a terminal sensory hair".
 * Visceral and viscus : associated with organs within the body's cavities. For example, the stomach is covered with a lining called the visceral peritoneum as opposed to the parietal peritoneum. Viscus can also be used to mean "organ". For example, the stomach is a viscus within the abdominal cavity, and visceral pain refers to pain originating from internal organs.
 * Aboral (opposite to oral) is used to denote a location along the gastrointestinal canal that is relatively closer to the anus.

Specific animals and other organisms
Different terms are used because of different body plans in animals, whether animals stand on one or two legs, and whether an animal is symmetrical or not, as discussed above. For example, as humans are approximately bilaterally symmetrical organisms, anatomical descriptions usually use the same terms as those for other vertebrates. However, humans stand upright on two legs, meaning their anterior/posterior and ventral/dorsal directions are the same, and the inferior/superior directions are necessary. Humans do not have a beak, so a term such as "rostral" used to refer to the beak in some animals is instead used to refer to part of the brain; humans do also not have a tail so a term such as "caudal" that refers to the tail end may also be used in humans and animals without tails to refer to the hind part of the body.

In invertebrates, the large variety of body shapes presents a difficult problem when attempting to apply standard directional terms. Depending on the organism, some terms are taken by analogy from vertebrate anatomy, and appropriate novel terms are applied as needed. Some such borrowed terms are widely applicable in most invertebrates; for example proximal, meaning "near" refers to the part of an appendage nearest to where it joins the body, and distal, meaning "standing away from" is used for the part furthest from the point of attachment. In all cases, the usage of terms is dependent on the body plan of the organism.

Asymmetrical and spherical organisms

In organisms with a changeable shape, such as amoeboid organisms, most directional terms are meaningless, since the shape of the organism is not constant and no distinct axes are fixed. Similarly, in spherically symmetrical organisms, there is nothing to distinguish one line through the centre of the organism from any other. An indefinite number of triads of mutually perpendicular axes could be defined, but any such choice of axes would be useless, as nothing would distinguish a chosen triad from any others. In such organisms, only terms such as superficial and deep, or sometimes proximal and distal, are usefully descriptive.

Elongated organisms
In organisms that maintain a constant shape and have one dimension longer than the other, at least two directional terms can be used. The long or longitudinal axis is defined by points at the opposite ends of the organism. Similarly, a perpendicular transverse axis can be defined by points on opposite sides of the organism. There is typically no basis for the definition of a third axis. Usually such organisms are planktonic (free-swimming) protists, and are nearly always viewed on microscope slides, where they appear essentially two-dimensional. In some cases a third axis can be defined, particularly where a non-terminal cytostome or other unique structure is present.

Some elongated protists have distinctive ends of the body. In such organisms, the end with a mouth (or equivalent structure, such as the cytostome in Paramecium or Stentor), or the end that usually points in the direction of the organism's locomotion (such as the end with the flagellum in Euglena), is normally designated as the anterior end. The opposite end then becomes the posterior end. Properly, this terminology would apply only to an organism that is always planktonic (not normally attached to a surface), although the term can also be applied to one that is sessile (normally attached to a surface).

Organisms that are attached to a substrate, such as sponges, animal-like protists also have distinctive ends. The part of the organism attached to the substrate is usually referred to as the basal end, whereas the end furthest from the attachment is referred to as the apical end.

Radially symmetrical organisms
Radially symmetrical organisms include those in the group Radiata – primarily jellyfish, sea anemones and corals and the comb jellies. Adult echinoderms, such as starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and others are also included, since they are pentaradial, meaning they have five discrete rotational symmetry. Echinoderm larvae are not included, since they are bilaterally symmetrical. Radially symmetrical organisms always have one distinctive axis.

Cnidarians (jellyfish, sea anemones and corals) have an incomplete digestive system, meaning that one end of the organism has a mouth, and the opposite end has no opening from the gut (coelenteron). For this reason, the end of the organism with the mouth is referred to as the oral end, and the opposite surface is the aboral end.

Unlike vertebrates, cnidarians have only a single distinctive axis. "Lateral", "dorsal", and "ventral" have no meaning in such organisms, and all can be replaced by the generic term peripheral. Medial can be used, but in the case of radiates indicates the central point, rather than a central axis as in vertebrates. Thus, there are multiple possible radial axes and medio-peripheral (half-) axes. However, some biradially symmetrical comb jellies do have distinct "tentacular" and "pharyngeal" axes and are thus anatomically equivalent to bilaterally symmetrical animals.

Spiders
Special terms are used for spiders. Two specialized terms are useful in describing views of arachnid legs and pedipalps. Prolateral refers to the surface of a leg that is closest to the anterior end of an arachnid's body. Retrolateral refers to the surface of a leg that is closest to the posterior end of an arachnid's body. Most spiders have eight eyes in four pairs. All the eyes are on the carapace of the prosoma, and their sizes, shapes and locations are characteristic of various spider families and other taxa. Usually, the eyes are arranged in two roughly parallel, horizontal and symmetrical rows of eyes. Eyes are labelled according to their position as anterior and posterior lateral eyes (ALE) and (PLE); and anterior and posterior median eyes (AME) and (PME).

title: Anatomical terms of location