Sideways

How to spell sideways

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sideways

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sideways mean?

1. adverbWith one side facing forward, or moving towards or from one side.
2. adjectiveDirected or angled towards one side rather than straight ahead.

Sideways in a sentence

• adverb

  The wardrobe only fitted through the door when they tilted it sideways.

• adjective

  She gave him a sideways glance during the meeting.

• adverb

  He had to shuffle sideways along the narrow ledge.

• adjective

  The sudden sideways skid forced the driver to brake hard.

Where does sideways come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins the native English noun 'side', which comes from Old English 'side' meaning the long surface or edge of a body or thing, with the suffix '-ways', which descends from the noun 'way' (Old English 'weg', a path or course) followed by an old genitive ending in '-s'. That '-s' is the same fossilised genitive that survives in 'always', 'towards' and 'sometimes', where it does not mark a plural at all but an adverbial sense of 'in the direction or manner of'. So 'sideways' literally meant 'in the direction of the side', and it surfaces in English from around the late 1500s. The older form 'sidewise' lingered for centuries with the same meaning, and the spelling trap to remember is that the ending is '-ways', a single fixed chunk, not the plural of anything.

How the word is built

• side (the part to the left or right)
• -ways (adverbial suffix meaning 'in the manner or direction of', from 'way' plus the old genitive -s)