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.
Anduril will build the laptops at its new “Arsenal-1” facility near Columbus, Ohio, alongside its autonomous jet-fighter and missile-interceptor production.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
On a large screen behind them, it stated that he had been in jail for one year, three months and 27 days and alongside his photo was the hashtag "#FreeGleize".
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
A randomized trial that evaluated the Miudella alongside an IUD model functionally equivalent to the Paragard also found that the participants assigned Miudella were more likely to keep using their IUD.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
This enabled the bank to issue a dividend of 10 US cents per share alongside plans for a fresh $1.0-billion stocks buyback.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
Clare raced alongside her, ignoring the clench of his undead lungs, the crunch of his brittle, undead bones, trying to measure a way to pull her out.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
