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Near vs Past - What's the difference?

near | past |

As verbs the difference between near and past

is that near is to come closer to; to approach while past is .

As a noun near

is the left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.

As an adjective near

is physically close.

As an adverb near

is having a small intervening distance with regard to something.

As a preposition near

is close to, in close proximity to.

near

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.

    • Synonyms

    * near side

    Antonyms

    * off side

    See also

    * nearside

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Physically close.
  • * Dryden
    • He served great Hector, and was ever near , / Not with his trumpet only, but his spear.
  • Closely connected or related.
  • * Bible, Leviticus xviii. 12
    • She is thy father's near kinswoman.
  • Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; intimate; dear.
    • a near friend
  • Close to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling.
    • a version near to the original
  • So as barely to avoid or pass injury or loss; close; narrow.
    • a near escape
  • (of an event) Approaching.
    • The end is near .
  • Approximate, almost.
    • The two words are near synonyms.
  • (dated) Next to the driver, when he is on foot; (US) on the left of an animal or a team.
    • the near''' ox; the '''near leg
  • (obsolete) Immediate; direct; close; short.
  • * Milton
    • the nearest way
  • (obsolete, slang) Stingy; parsimonious.

    • Antonyms

    * remote

    Derived terms

    * near abroad * near-death experience * near-Earth object * Near East * near infrared * near-minimal pair * near miss * near the knuckle * nearly * nearness

    Adverb

    (er)
  • Having a small intervening distance with regard to something.
    • I'm near -sighted.
  • (colloquial) nearly
  • * 1666 Samuel Pepys Diary and Correspondence (1867)
    • ...he hears for certain that the Queen-Mother is about and hath near finished a peace with France....
  • * 1825 David Hume, Tobias George Smollett The History of England p. 263
    • Sir John Friend had very near completed a regiment of horse.
  • * 2003 Owen Parry Honor's Kingdom p. 365
    • Thinking about those pounds and pence, I near forgot my wound.
  • * 2004 Jimmy Buffett A Salty Piece of Land p. 315, p. 35
    • "I damn near forgot." He pulled an envelope from his jacket.
  • * 2006 Juliet Marillier The Dark Mirror p. 377
    • The fire was almost dead, the chamber near dark.

    Derived terms

    * nearsighted

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Close to, in close proximity to.
  • * 1820 , (Mary Shelley), :
    • He entered the inn, and asking for dinner, unbuckled his wallet, and sat down to rest himself near the door.
  • * , chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}
  • * 1927 , , :
    • It shied, balked, and whinnied, and in the end he could do nothing but drive it into the yard while the men used their own strength to get the heavy wagon near enough the hayloft for convenient pitching.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author= John Vidal
    • , volume=189, issue=10, page=8, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas , passage=Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.}}
  • Close to in time.
    • Usage notes
    Joan Maling (1983) shows that near'' is best analysed as an adjective with which the use of ''to'' is optional, rather than a preposition. It has the comparative and the superlative, and it can be followed by ''enough''. The use of ''to however is usually British.

    Antonyms

    * far from

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To come closer to; to approach.
    • The ship nears the land.

    See also

    * (wikipedia) * para- * nigh

    References

    * Joan Maling (1983), Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis'', in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), ''Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles , vol.1, pp. 253-289.

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * 100 English basic words English locatives 1000 English basic words ----

    past

    English

    (wikipedia past)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.
    • a book about a time machine that can transport people back into the past
  • * D. Webster
    • The past , at least, is secure.
  • * Trench
    • The present is only intelligible in the light of the past , often a very remote past indeed.
  • (grammar) The past tense.

    • Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the noun "past") * blast from the past * in the past * past anterior * past continuous * past historic * past participle * past perfect * past progressive * past simple * past tense * simple past

    See also

    * preterite

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having already happened; in the past; finished.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=7 citation , passage=The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.}}
  • (postmodifier) Following expressions of time to indicate how long ago something happened; ago.
  • * 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 538:
    • That had been, what, three years past ?
  • * 2009 , , Glencoe , Amberley 2009, p. 20:
    • Some four decades past , as a boy, I had a chance encounter and conversation with the late W.A. Poucher [...].
  • Of a period of time: having just gone by; previous.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 23, work=(The Guardian), author=Angelique Chrisafis
    • , title=François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election citation , passage=Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.}}
  • (grammar) Of a tense, expressing action that has already happened or a previously-existing state.

    • Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • in a direction that passes
    • I watched him walk past

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • beyond in place, quantity or time
    • the room past mine
    count past twenty
    past midnight
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=April 22 , author=Sam Sheringham , title=Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But they were stunned when Glen Johnson's error let in Peter Odemwingie to fire past Pepe Reina on 75 minutes.}}

    Usage notes

    * The preposition past is used to tell the time. The time 5:05 is said as five past five. 5:10 as ten past five. 5:15 as quarter past five. 5:20 as twenty past five. 5:25 as twenty-five past five. 5:30 as half past five. If we are aware of the approximate time, we can just use e.g. five past, ten past etc. See the example below. *: I thought it was about six o'clock, but it was actually ten past . * Compare with to (five to, ten to, quarter to, twenty to, twenty-five to) * See also: o'clock

    Related terms

    * past master * past it

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----