sideways
/ˈsaɪdweɪz/
sideways adjective: moving or directed toward one side. Also the plural of sideway.
Adjective
sideways (comparative more sideways, superlative most sideways)
- Moving or directed toward one side.
- Giving Mary a sideways glance, he said,[…].
- He gave the ball a sideways kick.
- Positioned sideways (with a side to the front).
- There was a stack of papers in front of each seat at the table, but each stack was sideways.
- Neither moving upward nor moving downward.
- Once we get out of this sideways economy, our figures will more accurately reflect what we're truly capable of.
- In conflict (with); not compatible (with).
- He was constantly getting sideways with his boss till he got fired.
Adverb
sideways (comparative more sideways, superlative most sideways)
- With a side to the front.
- He builds houses sideways, with the front door on the side.
- Towards one side.
- A bishop moves only diagonally; a rook, only sideways, forward, and back.
- He looked sideways at the new arrival, wondering who she was.
- Askance; sidelong.
- Neither upward nor downward.
- The economy has been moving sideways for several months now.
- Not as planned; towards a worse outcome.
- We realized the project could go sideways very quickly if we didn't get the sales and marketing people on our side.
- As we walked deeper into the darkness, we both knew this could go sideways in a heartbeat. We were sitting ducks. Birds on a wire. Canaries in a coalmine.2011, D. P. Lyle, chapter 78, in Hot Lights, Cold Steel, →ISBN, page 340
- Synonyms:
- south
Also used as
sideways is also the plural of sideway.
Examples of sideways in a sentence
- He was kicked sideways by the force of the blast.
- A ship surges forwards, sways sideways and heaves up.
- He's no longer up to the job, move him sideways.
Synonyms of sideways
Antonyms
Forms of sideways
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more sideways |
| superlative | most sideways |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more sideways |
| superlative | most sideways |
Origin of sideways
From side + -ways.
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Words formed from sideways
Phrases with sideways
Questions about sideways
- What does sideways mean?
- Sideways means moving or directed toward one side.
- What part of speech is sideways?
- Sideways can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce sideways?
- Sideways is pronounced /ˈsaɪdweɪz/.
Words near sideways in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sideways (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sideways.wav.
Cite this entry: “sideways.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sideways. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.