Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- prep. In the direction of: driving toward home.
- prep. In a position facing: had his back toward me.
- prep. Somewhat before in time: It began to rain toward morning.
- prep. With regard to; in relation to: an optimistic attitude toward the future.
- prep. In furtherance or partial fulfillment of: contributed five dollars toward the bill.
- prep. By way of achieving; with a view to: efforts toward peace.
- adj. Favoring success or a good outcome; propitious.
- adj. Happening soon; imminent.
- adj. Obsolete Being quick to understand or learn.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In the direction of.
- To; on the way to; aiming or intending to reach, be, become, do, or the like: referring to destination, goal, end in view, aim, purpose, or design.
- With respect to; as regards; in relation to; concerning; respecting; regarding; expressing relation or reference.
- For; for the purpose of completing, promoting, fostering, defraying, relieving, or the like; as a help or contribution to.
- Near; nearly; about; close upon; as, toward three o'clock.
- [Toward was formerly sometimes divided, and the object inserted between.
- Coming; coming near; approaching; near; future; also, at hand; present.
- Yielding; pliant; hence, docile; ready to do or to learn; apt; not froward.
- Promising; likely; forward.
Wiktionary
- prep. Moving in the direction of (but not necessarily arriving at).
- prep. In relation to (someone or something).
- prep. For the purpose of attaining (an aim).
- prep. Located close to; near (a time or place).
- adj. obsolete Future; to come.
- adj. dated Approaching, coming near; impending; present, at hand.
- adj. Yielding, pliant; docile; ready or apt to learn; not froward.
- adj. Promising, likely; froward.
GNU Webster's 1913
- prep. In the direction of; to.
- prep. With direction to, in a moral sense; with respect or reference to; regarding; concerning.
- prep. Tending to; in the direction of; in behalf of.
- prep. Near; about; approaching to.
- adv. Near; at hand; in state of preparation.
- adj. Approaching; coming near.
- adj. Readly to do or learn; compliant with duty; not froward; apt; docile; tractable.
- adj. Ready to act; forward; bold; valiant.
Etymologies
- From Old English tōweard, equivalent to to + -ward (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English tōweard : tō, to; see to + -weard, -ward. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“At present everything seems tending toward the relaxation of ties, toward the substitution of wayward choice for the adherence to obligation, which has its roots in the past.”
“I could not help being moved, and glanced over toward the daughter's seat; but she was gone, and, turning round, I saw her going quietly, almost stealthily, and very quickly, _toward the cove_.”
“Peddler" could be just what it takes to get the wheels turning on a rethink of gender expectations in commitment, and also a label toward which some men may not want to steer, so instead, put on the breaks.”
“So even if, like Larry Craig, who will survive his term toward what end because Craig cannot run and cannot win, so I don't challenge the odds that he would be resigning.”
“In the 20th century, the bench and bar continued their progress if that is the word toward full professional status.”
“The chemist answered the question by turning the label toward her.”
“Jo backed away and turned without a word toward the cabin.”
“Glendenning shouted the name toward the roofbeams above.”
“He was struggling to put the bar code on Oprah, so Quaid pulled the label toward Dr. Oz. (click any picture for a larger version)”
“I think you will also find the Palestinians use the term toward the Israelis.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘toward’.
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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Deprefixed words
A list of words you more frequently hear used with prefixes than without.
clement, witting, ravel, whelm, fettered, licit, couth, bridled, wieldy, kempt, ingenuous, iterate and 116 more...
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
yours, yourself, yet, your, without, you, within, will, yourselves, would, why, with and 291 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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preposition
Collection of prepositions! Inspired by AWAD week of 3 - 9 Nov 2008.
pace, maugre, ere, circa, chez, about, above, across, after, against, among, around and 24 more...
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to acquire
moustache, thoughtcrime, lift, overall, razor, strength, oily, gin, oily gin, brotherhood, dull, toward and 108 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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merfee's Words
supple, dichotomy, relish, rhapsody, pneumonoultramicr..., embrace, ishmael, ebullient, recalcitrant, elegy, char, lugubrious and 522 more...
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Commonly misused.
ironic, bogus, random, irritate, aggravate, farther, further, lie, lay, nauseous, elicit, illicit and 7 more...
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Words = Good
me like dese werds
vex, saunter, boob, had had, jurisprudence, ghastly, mellifluous, calumny, lumber, bee, spendthrift, upbraid and 14 more...
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now-positions
without prepping
for, to, from, toward, in, through, with, on, against, into, at, by and 48 more...
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1
some
so, we, drove, on, toward, death, through, the, cooling, twilight
Tweets
Looking for tweets for toward.
qroqqa I thought BrE was pretty neutral about all the other -ward(s) words, and was surprised to see how much 'forward' preponderates over 'forwards': about 10 in 1 in both Ngrams and the BNC.
Examination of the BNC shows that much of this can be put down to common constructions like 'look forward to', 'put forward' (a proposal etc.), where only the one is possible. May 20, 2011
blafferty Thanks, rolig! Interesting stuff. I can't think of any case where I would write or say "forwards" either. May 19, 2011
rolig Blaff, my sense is that there is no difference in usage, if you mean that the same person would say or write "toward" in certain contexts and "towards" in other contexts. Certainly there is no difference in meaning. As an editor I have no qualms about changing "towards" to "toward" in any context (except in quoted material) -- or vice versa, depending on the style sheet I am using. The same is true for me with regard to other -ward/-wards words. The one exception that springs to mind is the adjective untoward (e.g. "untoward behavior"); I would never use this with an -s. But for me "backward thinking" and "backwards thinking" are equally correct; it all depends on the style sheet.
Curiously, though, I don't think I would ever use "forwards" as an adjective: "forwards thinking" definitely sounds wrong to me. But that might just be me. May 19, 2011
blafferty I have often wondered if there was a difference in usage. May 19, 2011
sionnach This is fascinating; thanks, qroqqa!
On edit, after reading rolig's astute comment: the very regular pattern of change from one form to the other between 1840 and 1940 is still striking, and suggests that the American usage was well-established by 1940. I wonder when the AP Style guide was first published. May 19, 2011
rolig There is a strong bias for edited text with Google Ngrams (its results are based on books, newspapers, and magazines), and I suspect that these results are partly, maybe largely, due to the fact that the AP stylebook, among others, insists on -ward spellings. In the spoken language and in non-edited or informal texts, I wonder if you will find the same sharp preference for toward among US speakers. It is not at all unusual for Americans to say towards. Speaking personally, as a Baltimore-born copyeditor trained to follow AP, I usually write toward, but I believe I have always tended to use towards in my speech. May 19, 2011
qroqqa The current AmE preferred form of 'towards', and has been since 1900, as illustrated strikingly on Google Ngram Viewer. Other -ward(s) words don't have anything like so dramatic a history.
In BrE it's always been very much a minor variant, but it may have started to come into regular use in recent years. May 19, 2011
thtownse I like this word in its adjectival usage. Sep 4, 2008