In featural phonology, anterior consonants refer to consonants with their place of articulation at or in front of the alveolar ridge.
Historically, anteriors comprised the labial, dental, and alveolar consonants, but modern terminology now excludes labials from the class, marking it only as a distinctive feature of coronal consonants. By contrast, the remaining coronals, that being postalveolar and retroflex, are nonanterior consonants (as well as palatals, if considered to be coronal).
Nonanteriors may also be called posterior consonants, though the term is also used more specifically to refer to consonants produced at or behind the hard palate, comprising dorsal and laryngeal consonants. Occasionally, retroflex consonants may be excluded from both the anterior and posterior classes.