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Past vs Through - What's the difference?

past | through |

As nouns the difference between past and through

is that past is the period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future while through is a large slab of stone laid on a tomb.

As adjectives the difference between past and through

is that past is having already happened; in the past; finished while through is passing from one side of an object to the other.

As adverbs the difference between past and through

is that past is in a direction that passes while through is from one side to the other by way of the interior.

As prepositions the difference between past and through

is that past is beyond in place, quantity or time while through is from one side of an opening to the other.

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

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    through

    English

    Alternative forms

    * thorow (obsolete) * thru

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) *. See also thorough.

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • From one side of an opening to the other.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • Entering, then later leaving.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • *
  • *:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.}}
  • Surrounded by (while moving).
  • :
  • *, chapter=1
  • , title= 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.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere.
  • By means of.
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 28, author=Tom Rostance, title=Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos
  • , work=BBC Sport citation , passage=But the home side were ahead in the eighth minute through 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}
  • (lb) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values.
  • :
  • Derived terms
    (terms derived using the preposition "through") * clear through * feedthrough * get through * go through * look through * right through * through and through * through with * throughput * throughway

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Passing from one side of an object to the other.
  • :
  • Finished; complete.
  • :
  • Valueless; without a future.
  • :
  • No longer interested.
  • :
  • *
  • *:“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.
  • *1977 , Iggy Pop,
  • *:I'm worth a million in prizes / Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk / No more beating my brains / No more beating my brains / With the liquor and drugs / With the liquor and drugs
  • Proceeding from origin to destination without delay due to change of equipment.
  • :
  • Adverb

    (-)
  • From one side to the other by way of the interior.
  • The arrow went straight through .
  • From one end to the other.
  • Others slept; he worked straight through .
    She read the letter through .
  • To the end.
  • He said he would see it through .
  • Completely.
  • Leave the yarn in the dye overnight so the color soaks through .
  • Out into the open.
  • The American army broke through at St. Lo.

    References

    * Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Bounded landmarks", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large slab of stone laid on a tomb.