Across vs Around - What's the difference?
across | around |
To, toward or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
(Southern US, AAVE) On the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).
* 1994 June 21, Thong P Tong <tongtp@coyote.cig.mot.comcoyote.cig.mot.com>, "Re: Battle Tech Center", message-ID <2u7lsi$79n@delphinium.cig.mot.com>, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games , Usenet [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games/msg/28d5e0700985bbe6]:
* 1995 , (Ronald Kessler), Inside the White House , 1996 edition, ISBN 0671879197, page 243 [http://books.google.com/books?id=lJz-yIZNE2sC&pg=PA243&dq=across]:
From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8
, passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
At or near the far end of (a space).
* 2004 , (Josephine Cox), Lovers and Liars , ISBN 0060525479, page 78 [http://books.google.com/books?id=MSZf-siTBGUC&pg=PA78&dq=across]:
Spanning.
Throughout.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=Anna Lena Phillips, volume=100, issue=2, page=172
, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=
, volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.
* 2010 , (Alex Bledsoe), The Girls with Games of Blood , , ISBN 9780765323842, page 147 [http://books.google.com/books?id=3O878YujdCEC&pg=PA147&dq=across]:
From one side to the other.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= On the other side.
In a particular direction.
(crosswords) Horizontally.
(crosswords) A clue whose solution runs horizontally in the grid.
Defining a circle or closed curve containing a thing.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title= Following the perimeter of a specified area and returning to the starting point.
Following a path which curves near an object, with the object on the inside of the curve.
*
, title= *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=But Richmond
Near; in the vicinity of.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
, volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= At various places in.
* , chapter=10
, title= Alive; existing.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= Generally.
From place to place.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-11, volume=407, issue=8835, page=80, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= From one state or condition to an opposite or very different one; with a metaphorical change in direction; bringing about awareness or agreement.
Partially or completely rotated, including to face in the opposite direction.
As prepositions the difference between across and around
is that across is to, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest) while around is defining a circle or closed curve containing a thing.As adverbs the difference between across and around
is that across is from one side to the other while around is generally.As a noun across
is a clue whose solution runs horizontally in the grid.As an adjective around is
alive; existing.across
English
Preposition
(English prepositions)- And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.
- On another occasion, Clinton asked to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car.
- "I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that was pretty well lit," Patterson recalled. "They stayed in the car for thirty to forty minutes."
- "Mam's baking and Cathleen's asleep. I've got a pile of washing bubbling in the copper, so I'd best be off." With that she was across the room and out the door.
Sneaky Silk Moths, passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}
Chico Harlan
Japan pockets the subsidy …, passage=Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."}}
- He parked across the end of the driveway, blocking her in.
Derived terms
* across-the-board * come across * get across * put across * put one across * run acrossAdverb
(-)Welcome to the plastisphere, passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across . Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
Noun
(es)- I solved all of the acrosses , but then got stuck on 3 down.
Statistics
*around
English
(translation tables should match senses)Alternative forms
* arownd (obsolete)Preposition
(English prepositions)Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
How algorithms rule the world, passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.}}
Derived terms
* all around * aroundness * around the clock * around the bend * around the corner * around the world * bat around * beat around the bush * get around * go around * hang around * have been around * ring-around-the-rosy * round * run around/run-around/runaround * turn around/turnaround * wrap around/wraparoundAdjective
(-)Lee S. Langston
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
Derived terms
* be aroundAdverb
(-)The climate of Tibet: Pole-land, passage=Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around , it changes everything.}}
- (see bring around, come around)
- (see bring around, come around)
