alongside
Americanadverb
preposition
-
beside; by the side of.
The dog ran alongside me all the way.
-
Informal. alongside of, compared with.
Alongside of his brother, he is no student at all.
preposition
adverb
Etymology
Origin of alongside
Explanation
Use the adverb alongside when two things are right next to each other, like a boat and a dock or a hunter and her loyal dog. If you pull up alongside your friend's car in a parking lot, it means that you've parked directly beside it. Alongside can also imply cooperation, as when a baker's assistant works alongside him, kneading dough and wiping flour off the counter. Alongside was once a phrase, either "along side" or "along the side," both primarily used in a nautical sense, to talk about boats. In the 1700s it became a single word.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But he added: “Even so, a broad-index cycle turning down from a projected high, arriving alongside Friday’s Growth unwind and a still-stretched tape, adds materially to the weight of evidence for a choppy-to-lower summer.”
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
The endowment, $13.4 billion as of June 30, made a call to put money into SpaceX in 2018, investing alongside Vy Capital, but also has exposure through multiple managers who invested in SpaceX.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Both firms' stock market plans, coming alongside those of Elon Musk's SpaceX and Grok, is set to show whether investor appetite matches the soaring valuations of AI companies.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
A handgun was recovered at the apartment and will undergo forensic analysis alongside DNA and other evidence collected at the scene, Bland said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
“Be calm,” Commander Gorringe told us as the ship pulled alongside ours.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
