Within

How to spell within

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce within

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does within mean?

1. prepositionInside the limits or bounds of something, whether a place, a period of time, or a set of rules.

Within in a sentence

• The parcel should arrive within three working days.

• All staff must stay within the marked safety zone.

Where does within come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from Old English withinnan, a compound built from wið, meaning 'against' or 'alongside', and innan, meaning 'inside' or 'within'. The first element wið originally carried the sense of opposition or proximity, and it is the same root that survives in the modern preposition 'with'. The combined form expressed the idea of being on the inside, enclosed by some boundary. As it moved into Middle English the spelling settled toward the modern 'within', and the word broadened to cover both physical interiors and figurative limits, such as time periods or rules. Because it is a tight fusion of two everyday parts, it is spelled as one solid word with no hyphen, a point worth remembering for those tempted to split it.

How the word is built

• with- (Old English wið: against, alongside)
• -in (Old English innan: inside)