abreast
/əˈbɹɛst/
abreast adverb: side by side and facing forward.
Adverb
abreast (not comparable)
- Side by side and facing forward.
- On Sunday afternoon it was as dark as night, with barely room for two riders abreast on a gradient that touches 20%.2012 July 15, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track”, in Guardian Unlimited
- The only path was narrow and rugged: two men could hardly walk abreast;1859, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second
- Alongside; parallel to.
- Informed, well-informed, familiar, acquainted.
- Synonyms:
- apprised, informed, up to date, up-to-date
- Followed by of or with: up to a certain level or line; equally advanced.
- She believes it is important to keep abreast of new scientific developments.
- Breast high (of an advancing wave).
- The west wind blew a tempest, and, according to the common expression, brought in the water [of the Solway] three foot abreast.
- Side by side; also, opposite; on a line with the vessel's beam.
- At the same time; simultaneously.
- Abreast therewith began a convocation.1842, Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain, From the birth of Jesus Christ until the year MDCXLVIII., 3rd edition, volume 1, page 412
Adjective
abreast (not comparable)
- Side by side, facing forward.
- Alongside; parallel to.
- Informed, well-informed, familiar, acquainted.
- Up to a certain level or line; equally advanced
- to keep abreast of [or with] the present state of science
- Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to furnish in their own personality a good bit of the motive power to the mad pace.c. 1900, Kate Chopin, A Reflection
- Side by side; also, opposite; over against; on a line with the vessel's beam.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:abreast.
Preposition
abreast
- Abreast of; alongside.
- This ship sank abreast the island.
abreast meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
abreast in Hindi
- abreast
- बराबर barābar
abreast in Tamil
- ஒருவர் பக்கத்தில் ஒருவராய், அடுத்தடுத்து, இணையாக, பழக்கமான, தெரியப்படுத்தப்பட்ட, எதிரெதிராக
abreast in Urdu
- abreast
- برابر barābar
abreast in Bengali
- পাশাপাশি, সমান্তরালে
More languagesFewer languages
- abreast in Malayalam
- തൊട്ടുതൊട്ട്, വരിയായി, കൂടെ, സാർദ്ധം
- abreast in Kannada
- ಒಟ್ಟೊಟ್ಟಿಗೆ
Examples of abreast in a sentence
- Do your duty by me! -No, we don't have a duty to keep you abreast.
- I'd appreciate it so much if you'd keep me abreast of developments.
- Abreast of the first soldier, he too took in the round collar and halted gapemouthed.
Synonyms of abreast
Origin of abreast
From Middle English abrest. By surface analysis, a- (“on, at”) + breast, meaning “breasts (chests) in line, side-by-side and exactly equally advanced”; roughly “breast-by-breast”.
Words formed from abreast
Phrases with abreast
Words that rhyme with abreast
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- gest
- impressed
- jest
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- divest
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- pressed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- lest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about abreast
- What does abreast mean?
- Abreast means side by side and facing forward.
- What is abreast in Hindi?
- Abreast in Hindi is बराबर (barābar). See Abreast meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is abreast?
- Abreast can be an adverb, an adjective or a preposition.
- How do you pronounce abreast?
- Abreast is pronounced /əˈbɹɛst/.
Words near abreast in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abreast (page history and authors); बराबर (Hindi) (page history and authors); abreast (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); برابر (Urdu) (page history and authors); abreast (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abreast (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); abreast (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-abreast.ogg, en-au-abreast.ogg.
Cite this entry: “abreast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abreast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.