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.
The family say they are "angry" over an absence of communication from authorities in the days leading up to the incident, alongside the lack of reassurance afterwards.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
That’s all alongside the medications that Lilly already sells: Zepbound and Mounjaro, plus Foundayo, a GLP-1 pill.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
The study was supported in part by the European Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, alongside international partners.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
American Express is rolling out an expense-management platform with AI features alongside its new corporate card, as the company’s corporate business faces mounting competition from fintechs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Death marched alongside the roughly 18,000 barely trained soldiers from both North and South.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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.
