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Past vs Across - What's the difference?

past | across |

As a verb past

is .

As a preposition across is

to, toward or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).

As an adverb across is

from one side to the other.

As a noun across is

(crosswords) a clue whose solution runs horizontally in the grid.

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

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    across

    English

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • 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]:
  • 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.
  • * 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]:
  • 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."
  • 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]:
  • "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.
  • Spanning.
  • Throughout.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=Anna Lena Phillips, volume=100, issue=2, page=172
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= 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.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Chico Harlan
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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."}}
  • 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]:
  • 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 across

    Adverb

    (-)
  • From one side to the other.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= 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, […].}}
  • On the other side.
  • In a particular direction.
  • (crosswords) Horizontally.
  • Noun

    (es)
  • (crosswords) A clue whose solution runs horizontally in the grid.
  • I solved all of the acrosses , but then got stuck on 3 down.

    Statistics

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