Something toward the end or away from the center of the body is called distal. In anatomy, the term describes a position farther from a reference point, usually the trunk or the point where a limb begins.
For example, the hand is distal to the shoulder, and the fingers are distal to the wrist. The foot is distal to the knee, while the toes are distal to the ankle. The comparison is always relative: one structure is distal to another, rather than simply being “distal” in isolation.
Distal is commonly paired with proximal, which means nearer to the center of the body or nearer to the point of attachment. The words are especially useful for describing arms, legs, blood vessels, nerves, and bones precisely.
A common mistake is to confuse distal with lateral. Lateral means farther from the body’s midline, while distal concerns distance along a limb or away from an origin. Thus, the thumb is lateral to the little finger in anatomical position, but the fingers are distal to the wrist.