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 hush-hush raves that require knowing someone and slinking into condemned warehouses have always happened alongside parties thrown by big-name promoters.
From Slate • Jun. 25, 2026
Mexico, which is co-hosting the tournament alongside Canada and the United States, will face its next opponent — one of the best third-place finishers — on Tuesday at Azteca Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 25, 2026
The three together dominate the business of memory chips called DRAM, which get used alongside Nvidia’s processor chips for AI computing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026
Broadcom designs custom chips, known as application-specific integrated circuits, alongside its customers.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 24, 2026
General Power had fought alongside Curtis LeMay in World War II. Like LeMay, he believed that only the threat of overwhelming force could save Americans from the Soviet Union.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
