next
/nɛkst/
next adjective: nearest in place or position, having nothing similar intervening; adjoining.
Adjective
next (not comparable)
- Nearest in place or position, having nothing similar intervening; adjoining.
- The man in the next bunk kept me awake all night with his snoring.
- She lives a mile or two away, in the next village.
- Most direct, or shortest or nearest in distance or time.
- A prophet I, Madam; and I speak the truth the next way: […]c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The road to resolution, lies by doubt:
"The next way home's the farthest way about."1777, Francis Quarles, Emblems Divine and Moral: Together with Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man, page 152, epigram 2
- Nearest in order, succession, or rank; immediately following (or sometimes preceding) in order.
- Please turn to the next page.
- On Wednesday next, I'm going to Spain.
- Nearest in relationship. (See also next of kin.)
- next friend
- And if a man purchase land in fee simple and die without issue, he which is his next cousin collaterall of the whole blood, how farre so ever he be from him in degree, (de quel pluis long degree qu'il soit), may inherite and have the land ...1628, Coke, On Littleton (10. a. 10. b. §2), quoted in 1890, John Bethell Uhle, Current Comment and Legal Miscellany, page 250
Determiner
next
- Denotes the one immediately following the current or most recent one.
- Next week would be a good time to meet.
- I'll know better next time.
- Closest in the future, or closest but one if the closest is very soon; of days, sometimes thought to specifically refer to the instance closest to seven days (one week) in the future.
- The party is next Tuesday; that is, not tomorrow, but eight days from now.
- When you say next Thursday, do you mean Thursday this week or Thursday next week?
Adverb
next (not comparable)
- In a time, place, rank or sequence closest or following.
- They live in the next closest house.
- It's the next best thing to ice cream.
- So as to follow in time or sequence something previously mentioned.
- First we removed all the handles; next, we stripped off the old paint.
- On the first subsequent occasion.
- Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next?
- When we next meet, you'll be married.
Preposition
next
- On the side of; nearest or adjacent to; next to.
- D is so dainty a letter, that she admits no other consonant next her but R:[…]1660, James Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary: […] By the Labours, and Lucubrations of James Howell, page 117
- All persons, in walking the streets, whose right sides are next the wall, are intitled to take the wall.1822, The Pamphleteer, page 118
Noun (1)
next (uncountable)
- The one that follows after this one.
- Next, please, don't hold up the queue!
- There is no time for lunch, hauling myself from one place to the next.2007, Steve Cohen, Next Stop Hollywood (St. Martin's Griffin)
- Next match
- gg team, Wanna play next?
Noun (2) capitalized: NEXT
NEXT (countable and uncountable, plural NEXTs)
- Initialism of near-end crosstalk.
- All twisted pairs are assumed to be 26-gauge (0.4mm) and 9000-feet (2744m) long. The dominant crosstalk signals consist of NEXTs from BRIs and HDSLs.2001, Chaohuang Zeng, Carlos Adana, Atul Salvekar, John M. Cioffi, “Crosstalk Identification in xDSL Systems”, in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, volume 19, number 8, →DOI, →ISSN
next meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
next in Hindi
- following in a sequence
- अगला aglā
next in Tamil
- அடுத்தது, அடுத்து
next in Marathi
- पुढील, पुढे
next in Urdu
- following in a sequence
- اگلا aglā
More languagesFewer languages
- next in Bengali
- পরবর্তী, পরের, এর পরের
- next in Telugu
- తదుపరిది, తదుపరి
- next in Malayalam
- അടുത്തത്
- next in Kannada
- ಮುಂದಿನದು, ಮುಂದೆ, ಮುಂದಿನ
- next in Punjabi
- ਅਗਲਾ, ਅੱਗੇ
- next in Gujarati
- આગામી, આગળ
- next in Odia
- ପରବର୍ତ୍ତୀ
- next in Sinhala
- ඊළඟ īḷaⁿga
- next in Assamese
- পিছৰ pisor, অহা oha
- next in Pashto
- ورپسې warpëse, بل bël
- next in Tagalog
- sunod
- next in Arabic
- قَادِم qādim, تَالٍ tālin, بِجَانِب bi-jānib
- next in Malay
- depan
- next in Persian
- آینده âyande, سپس sepas, پس از این pas az in, دیگر digar
- next in Thai
- หน้า nâa
- next in Vietnamese
- tiếp theo, sắp tới, bên
- next in Myanmar
- နောက် nauk, ရှေ့ hre.
Examples of next in a sentence
- I live in the next house to the Grand Hotel.
- the next chapter; the next week; the Sunday next before Easter
- The man was driven by his love for money and his desire to become the next Bill Gates.
- Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- "[…]You patriotic?" / "I guess so, as much as the next guy," I said, wondering how the hell I could shake him.1945, Yank: the army weekly, volume 4, page 96:
- The fact that the line cannot be original is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest of the Iliad is not encamped next the Athenians […] .1900, The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices, translated by Walter Leaf (London, Macmillan), notes...
Synonyms of next
Antonyms
Forms of next
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative Scotland | neist |
| alternative form (dialectal) | neest |
| alternative form (archaic) | nex |
| alternative form (dialectal) | nex' |
| Noun | |
| plural | NEXTs |
Origin of next
From Middle English nexte, nexste, nixte, from Old English nīehsta, nīehste, etc., inflected forms of nīehst (“nearest, next”), superlative form of nēah (“nigh”) (the comparative would become near), corresponding to Proto-Germanic *nēhwist (“nearest, closest”); equivalent to nigh + -est. Cognate with Saterland Frisian naist (“next”), Dutch naast (“next to”), German nächster (“next”), Yiddish נעקסט (nekst, “next”), Danish næste (“next”), Elfdalian nest (“by, near”), Icelandic næst (“next”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk neste (“next”), Swedish näst, nästa (“next”), Persian نزد (nazd, “near, with”). Compare typologically Latin proximus (“nearest, next”).
Words formed from next
- as modern as next week
- as the next girl
- as the next guy
- as the next person
- a week from next Tuesday
- better luck next time
- boy next door
- cleanliness is next to godliness
- Cley next the Sea
- one day to the next
- girl next door
- knock someone into the middle of next week
- modern as next week
- next big thing
- nextborn
- next-day
- next-door
- next door
- next-gen
- next-generation
- next generation
- next generation networking
- nexting
- nextish
- next-level
- next level
- next life
- nextly
- nextness
- next next
- next sleep
- next store
- next thing one knows
- next time
- next-to-last
- next to last
- next tomorrow
- next to nothing
- next to no time
- next up
- next week
- next week, East Lynne
- next world
- next year
- you next Thursday
- you next Tuesday
- take it to the next level
- take to the next level
- the next best thing
- the next day
- until next time
- Wells-next-the-Sea
- whatever next
- what next
- what's next
Phrases with next
- next to
- as the next
- Next Eleven
- next friend
- next levels
- next of kin
- next sleeps
- next friends
- 'til next time
- boys next door
- till next time
- as the next man
15 more phrasesFewer phrases
- Generation Next
- girls next door
- next big things
- next generations
- see you next Tuesday
- see you next Thursday
- see you next Tuesdays
- from one day to the next
- took it to the next level
- taken it to the next level
- takes it to the next level
- taking it to the next level
- knocks someone into the middle of next week
- knocked someone into the middle of next week
- knocking someone into the middle of next week
Words that rhyme with next
Questions about next
- What does next mean?
- Next means nearest in place or position, having nothing similar intervening; adjoining.
- What is next in Hindi?
- Next in Hindi is अगला (aglā). See Next meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use next in a sentence?
- I live in the next house to the Grand Hotel.
- What part of speech is next?
- Next can be an adjective, a determiner, an adverb or a preposition.
- How do you pronounce next?
- Next is pronounced /nɛkst/.
Words near next in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: next (page history and authors); NEXT (page history and authors); next (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); next (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-next.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-next.wav.
Cite this entry: “next.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/next. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.