across
Syllables: a·crossUK/əˈkɹɒs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/əˈkɹɔs/
across preposition: to, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
Preposition
across
- To, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
- We rowed across the river.
- Fortunately, there was a bridge across the river.
- On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
- That store is across the street.
- across from: on the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).
- And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. […] Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.1994 June 21, Thong P Tong <tongtp@coyote.cig.mot.com>, "Re: Battle Tech Center", message-ID <2u7lsi$79n@delphinium.cig.mot.com>, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games, Usenet...
- On another occasion, Clinton asked Patterson to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car.
"I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that...1995, Ronald Kessler, Inside the White House, published 1996, →ISBN, page 243
- From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).
- The meteor streaked across the sky.
- He walked across the room.
- At or near the far end of (a space).
- "Mam's baking and Cathleen's asleep. I've got a pile of washing bubbling in the copper, so I'd best be off." With that she was across the room and out the door.2004, Josephine Cox, Lovers and Liars, →ISBN, page 78
- Spanning.
- This poetry speaks across the centuries.
- Throughout.
- All across the country, voters were communicating their representatives.
- Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172
- So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.
- Lay the top stick across the bottom one.
- She had straps fastened across the conduit every six feet.
- In possession of full, up-to-date information about; abreast of.
- Keep across all the latest news here at Channel 10.
- As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president.2019 September 20, Lenore Taylor, The Guardian
Adverb
across (not comparable)
- From one side to the other.
- she helped the blind man across; the river is half a mile across
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
- On the other side.
- If we sail off at noon, when will we be across?
- In a particular direction.
- He leaned across for a book.
- Horizontally.
- I got stuck on 4 across.
Noun
across (plural acrosses)
- A word that runs horizontally in the completed puzzle grid or its associated clue.
- I solved all of the acrosses, but then got stuck on 3 down.
across meaning in Telugu, Malayalam and Arabic
across in Telugu
- on the opposite side
- ఆవల āvala, అవతల avatala
across in Malayalam
- on the opposite side
- അപ്പുറം appuṟaṁ
- from the far side
- കുറുകേ kuṟukē
- from one side to another
- ഉടനീളം uṭanīḷaṁ
- on the other side
- അപ്പുറം appuṟaṁ
across in Arabic
- on the opposite side
- عَبْرَ ʕabra
- from the far side
- عَبْرَ ʕabra
- from one side to another
- عَبْرَ ʕabra
Examples of across in a sentence
- He came across the street to meet me.
- Could you slide that across the table to me, please?
- A boy that sat across me politely introduced himself as Jackson Klausner.2011, Danielle Butler, Scars of Eternity, page 30:
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels.2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
- He parked across the end of the driveway, blocking her in.2010, Alex Bledsoe, The Girls with Games of Blood, Tor, →ISBN, page 147:
Forms of across
| Preposition | |
|---|---|
| alternative form (nonstandard, dialectal) | acrost |
| Noun | |
| plural | acrosses |
Origin of across
From Middle English acros, from early Middle English a-croiz, a-creoyz, from Anglo-Norman an (“in, on”) + croiz (“in the form of a cross”). More at cross. By surface analysis, a- + cross.
Words formed from across
- across country
- across from
- across lots
- across-the-board
- across the board
- across the ditch
- across the line
- across the pond
- across the way
- across variable
- acrosswise
- broad across the beam
- bump across
- come across
- come across with
- cut across
- drag one's balls across
- draw a sponge across the slate
- draw a wet sponge across the slate
- draw the sponge across the slate
- draw the wet sponge across the slate
- get across
- get across the line
- happen across
- keep across
- pass a sponge across the slate
- pass a wet sponge across the slate
- pass the sponge across the slate
- pass the wet sponge across the slate
- put across
- put one across
- put oneself across
- put the heart across one
- read across
- run across
- shot across the bow
- shot across the bows
- stumble across
- sweep across
- take across
- tens across the board
- thereacross
- trust someone across the street
- whereacross
Phrases with across
- got across
- ran across
- came across
- cuts across
- gets across
- kept across
- puts across
- runs across
- took across
- bumps across
- comes across
- keeps across
46 more phrasesFewer phrases
- reads across
- taken across
- takes across
- bumped across
- coming across
- gotten across
- taking across
- bumping across
- cutting across
- getting across
- happens across
- keeping across
- putting across
- reading across
- running across
- happened across
- puts one across
- stumbled across
- stumbles across
- across variables
- came across with
- happening across
- stumbling across
- comes across with
- coming across with
- putting one across
- got across the line
- puts oneself across
- gets across the line
- shots across the bow
- shots across the bows
- gotten across the line
- putting oneself across
- reach across the aisle
- drug one's balls across
- getting across the line
- drags one's balls across
- reached across the aisle
- reaches across the aisle
- reaching across the aisle
- dragged one's balls across
- dragging one's balls across
- trusts someone across the street
- trusted someone across the street
- trusting someone across the street
- down the road, not across the street
Words that rhyme with across
Questions about across
- What does across mean?
- Across means to, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
- What is across in Telugu?
- Across in Telugu is ఆవల (āvala), అవతల (avatala). See Across meaning in Telugu.
- How do you use across in a sentence?
- He came across the street to meet me.
- What part of speech is across?
- Across can be a preposition, an adverb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce across?
- Across is pronounced /əˈkɹɒs/ (UK).
Words near across in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: across (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-across.ogg.
Cite this entry: “across.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/across. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.