Word.ws English Dictionary

further

/ˈfɜːðə//ˈfɝ.ðɚ/

further verb: to help forward; to assist.

Verb

further (third-person singular simple present furthers, present participle furthering, simple past and past participle furthered)

  1. (transitive) To help forward; to assist.
    • In happie houre we haue ſet the Crowne
      Upon your Kingly head, that ſeeks our honor,
      In ioyning with the man, ordain’d by heauen
      To further euerie action to the beſt.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • Upon this he brought me a cotton bag and giving it to me, said, "Take this bag and fill it with pebbles from the beach and go forth with a company of the townsfolk to whom I will give a charge respecting thee. Do as they do and belike thou shalt gain what may further thy return voyage to thy native...1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 558
    Antonyms:
    hinder
  2. (transitive) To encourage growth; to support progress or growth of something; to promote.
    • Further the economy.
    • to further the peace process

Adjective

further (not comparable)

  1. (comparative form of far) More distant; relatively distant.
    • See those two lampposts? Run to the further one.
    • He was standing at the further end of the corridor.
  2. More, additional.
    • I have one further comment to make.
    • This time Cudicini was left helpless when Natcho stepped up to expertly curl the ball into the top corner.
      That was the cue for further pressure from the Russian side and it took further Cudicini saves to keep the score down.2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport

Adverb

further (not comparable)

  1. (comparative form of far) To, at or over a greater distance in space, time or other extent.
    • I can run further than you.
    • I live a little further out of town.
  2. (comparative form of far) To a greater extent or degree.
    • Of the two civilisations, this one was further advanced.
    • I do not propose to discuss it any further. - Please, let me explain just a little further.
  3. Beyond what is already stated or is already the case.
    • Chapter 10 further explains the ideas introduced in Chapter 9.
    • Don't confuse things further.
  4. (conjunctive) Also; in addition; furthermore; moreover.
    • It is overlong, and further, it makes no sense.
    • I claim further that he did not own the company but only worked there.
  5. Following on (from).
    • Further to our recent telephone call, I am writing to clarify certain points raised.
    • This example is further to the one on page 17.

further meaning in Arabic

further in Arabic

more distant
أَبْعَد ʔabʕad, أَقْصَى ʔaqṣā, أطولُ, إِضَافِيّ ʔiḍāfiyy, آخَر ʔāḵar, مَزِيد mazīd

Examples of further in a sentence

  • How was your company doing ten years further back?
  • Further, affiant sayeth naught. (A formal statement ending a deposition or affidavit, immediately preceding the affiant's signature.)
  • Do as they do and belike thou shalt gain what may further thy return voyage to thy native land."1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 558:
  • By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Further, besides sensible things and Forms he says there are the objects of mathematics, which occupy an intermediate position,[…].1924, Aristotle, translated by W. D. Ross, Metaphysics, Book 1, Part 6:

All 40 example sentences with further

Antonyms of further

Forms of further

third-person singular presentfurthers
present participlefurthering
past participlefurthered
pastfurthered
alternative formfarther

Past tense of further: furthered

Origin of further

From Middle English further, forther, from Old English forþor, furþor (“further”, adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *furþer, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (a common preposition), equivalent to fore + -ther (a vestigial comparative ending still present in such words as other, either, whether, and, in altered form, in after); or as sometimes stated, as forth + -er. Cognate with Scots forder, furder (“further”), Saterland Frisian foarder (“further”), West Frisian fierder (“further”), Dutch verder (“further”), German fürder (“further”).

Words formed from further

Phrases with further

Words that rhyme with further

Questions about further

What does further mean?
Further means to help forward; to assist.
What is further in Arabic?
Further in Arabic is أَبْعَد (ʔabʕad), أَقْصَى (ʔaqṣā), أطولُ. See Further meaning in Arabic.
How do you use further in a sentence?
How was your company doing ten years further back?
What part of speech is further?
Further can be a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce further?
Further is pronounced /ˈfɜːðə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of further?
The past tense of further is furthered.

Words near further in the dictionary

  1. furth
  2. Furth im Wald
  3. furthcoming
  4. furthcomings
  5. furthen
  6. further
  7. further education
  8. further flung
  9. further-flung
  10. further-reaching
  11. furtherance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: further (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-GB-further.ogg, en-us-further.ogg.

Cite this entry: “further.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/further. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.