BESIDE Definition & Meaning

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beside

[ bih-sahyd ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

preposition

by or at the side of; near:
Sit down beside me.
compared with:
Beside him other writers seem amateurish.
apart from; not connected with:
beside the point; beside the question.
besides ( defs 4, 5 ).

adverb

along the side of something:
The family rode in the carriage, and the dog ran along beside.
besides ( def 2 ).

beside

/ ��ɪˈ��ɪ�� /

preposition

next to; at, by, or to the side of
as compared with
away from; wide of
beside the point
archaic.
besides
beside oneself
postpositiveoften foll bywith overwhelmed; overwrought
beside oneself with grief

adverb

at, by, to, or along the side of something or someone

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Confusables Note

For the prepositional meanings “over and above, in addition to” and “except” besides is preferred, especially in edited writing: Besides these honors he received a sum of money. We heard no other sound besides the breaking surf. However, beside sometimes occurs with these meanings as well.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of beside¹

before 1000; Middle English; earlier bi-siden, Old English bī sīdan, be sīdan; be-, side ¹

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of beside¹

Old English be sīdan ; see by , side

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Idioms and Phrases

beside oneself, almost out of one's senses from a strong emotion, as from joy, delight, anger, fear, or grief:
He was beside himself with rage when the train left without him.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The session was stopped twice because grass beside the Suzuka track caught alight, once early in the session and once seven minutes before the scheduled end.

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Sitting beside him, Le Pen said a "nuclear bomb" had been used used against the RN to stop the party getting into power.

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“I don’t come unless I’m called,” the woman explains to Ramona, as Okpokwasili cuts a regal, gothic figure of steely poise, practically engulfing Deadwyler merely by sitting beside her.

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A 14-year-old boy in a denim jacket sat next to his aunt, whose teenage daughter was texting beside her.

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The Bundeswehr only has one permanent drop-in centre, a small unit sandwiched between a pharmacy and a shoe store beside Berlin's Friedrichstrasse station.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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