Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Suffixes denoting course or direction to; motion or tendency toward; as in backward, or backwards; toward, or towards, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • suffix Forming adverbs denoting course or direction to, or motion or tendency toward, as in "backward", "toward", "forward", etc.
  • suffix Forming adjectives, as in "a backward look", "the northward road", etc; used even by speakers who usually use -wards for adverbs.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English -weard, -weardes; akin to Old Saxon and Old Frisian -ward. Old High German -wert, German -wärts, Icelandic -verðr, Gothic -vaírþs, Latin vertere to turn, versus toward, and English worth to become. See wort, intransitive verb, and compare verse.

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Examples

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