Toward vs Next - What's the difference?
toward | next |
In the direction of.
:
*(Bible), (w) xxiv. 1
*:He set his face toward the wilderness.
*
*: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.
In relation to (someone or something).
:
*(Bible), (w)
*:His eye shall be evil toward his brother.
For the purpose of attaining (an aim).
:
Located close to; near (a time or place).
:
*(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
*:I am toward nine years older since I left you.
(obsolete) Future; to come.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
(dated) Approaching, coming near; impending; present, at hand.
* Shakespeare
* 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
Yielding, pliant; docile; ready or apt to learn; not froward.
(obsolete, or, archaic) Promising, likely; froward.
Following in a sequence.
Being closer to the present location than all other items.
* , chapter=8
, title= Nearest following (of date, time, space or order).
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (figuratively) Following in a hypothetical sequence of some kind.
*
The one immediately following the current or most recent one
Closest to seven days (one week) in the future.
In a time, place or sequence closest or following.
On the first subsequent occasion,
On the side of; next to.
* 1900 , The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices , translated by Walter Leaf (London, Macmillan), notes on line 558 of book 2:
The one that follows after this one.
As prepositions the difference between toward and next
is that toward is in the direction of while next is on the side of; next to.As adjectives the difference between toward and next
is that toward is future; to come while next is following in a sequence.As a determiner next is
the one immediately following the current or most recent one.As an adverb next is
in a time, place or sequence closest or following.As a noun next is
the one that follows after this one.toward
English
Preposition
(en-prep) (mainly in American English)Synonyms
* towardsUsage notes
* Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words (term) and (towards), the difference is merely dialectal. (term) is more common in American English and (towards) is the predominant form in British English.Adjective
(-)- ere that wished day his beame disclosd, / He either enuying my toward good, / Or of himselfe to treason ill disposd / One day vnto me came in friendly mood [...].
- Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward ?
- On the morrow […] orders the Cellerarius to send off his carpenters to demolish the said structure brevi manu , and lay up the wood in safe keeping. Old Dean Herbert, hearing what was toward , comes tottering along hither, to plead humbly for himself and his mill.
- Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. ? Shakespeare.
Statistics
* American Englishnext
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (dialectal) * (l) (Scotland)Adjective
(-)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.}}
Out of the gloom, passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
Antonyms
* previous * (closest to seven days ahead) last, thisDeterminer
(en determiner)- Next week would be a good time to meet.
- I'll know better next time.
- The party is next Tuesday; that is, not this Tuesday, but nine days from now.
Adverb
(-)- They live in the next closest house.
- It's the next best thing to ice cream.
- Next , we stripped off the old paint.
- Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next ?
- When we next meet, you'll be married.
Antonyms
* previouslyPreposition
(English prepositions)- The fact that the line cannot be original is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest of the Iliad is not encamped next the Athenians .
Noun
(-)- ''Next , please, don't hold up the queue!