Beyond

How to spell beyond

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce beyond

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beyond mean?

1. prepositionOn or to the far side of something, or further than a given point, limit, or scope.
2. adverbAt or to the more distant side; further on.

Beyond in a sentence

• preposition

  The new houses were built beyond the old railway line.

• adverb

  The garden ended at the fence, and the open fields lay beyond.

• preposition

  The cost of the repair was beyond what she could afford.

• adverb

  She planned for the next year and the years beyond.

Where does beyond come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Beyond comes straight from Old English, where it appeared as 'begeondan', a compound of 'be', meaning 'by' or 'about', and 'geondan', which meant 'on the far side of' and was related to 'geond', the ancestor of the word 'yonder'. The literal sense was something like 'by the far side', describing a place lying further off than the speaker. From this physical meaning of distance the word broadened over the centuries to cover time ('beyond noon'), degree ('beyond repair') and limits of comprehension ('beyond me'). Because the second element is the old word 'yond', the spelling keeps the unexpected 'yo' in the middle rather than any vowel a writer might guess from the sound. The whole word is wholly native English and shares its 'be-' element with everyday words like 'beside', 'before' and 'between'.

How the word is built

• be- (by, around)
• yond (that place over there, from Old English geond)