Please clarify technical term?

[fortitudine]

I notice on this and other spine forums that there is a grey area in the use of 'anterior/posterior' , 'front/back' of cervical vertebrae.

As I understand it there are at least three place where osteophytes can form on the vertebral body: the front of the vertebra, and the front and back of the spinal canal. Spurs on the very front (anterior?) - the throat area, don't seem to be an issue. It's the ones that protrude into the spinal canal. Often a patient/MRI will say there are anterior or posterior bone spurs at cX/Y.
I have always assumed they meant around the spinal canal, but from further reading it is sometimes hard to tell whether 'posterior' is referring to the back of the vertebral body, which is also anterior to the spinal canal, or whether by 'posterior' they are referring to spurs growing forwards from the lamina/spinous process into the canal.

If posterior and anterior refer to the canal, then what do you call the very front (throat) part of a vertebra?