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Towards vs Into - What's the difference?

towards | into |

As prepositions the difference between towards and into

is that towards is variant of toward while into is going inside (of).

As an adverb towards

is in the direction of something (indicated by context).

As an adjective towards

is near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward.

As an initialism INTO is

the Irish national teacher's organisation.

towards

English

Preposition

(en-prep) (mainly in British English )
  • Variant of toward.
  • * 1835 , Sir , Sir (James Clark Ross), Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1 , pp.284-5
  • Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Everton 0-2 Liverpool , passage=But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.}}

    Synonyms

    * toward

    Usage notes

    * Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words (term) and (towards), the difference is merely dialectal. (term) is the most common form, while (toward) tends to appear only in American English.

    See also

    * See

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) In the direction of something (indicated by context).
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
  • Thus as he spake, lo far away they spyde / A varlet running towards hastily [...].

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward.
  • * Shakespeare
  • We have a trifling foolish banquet / Towards .

    Statistics

    * English prepositions

    into

    English

    (wikipedia into)

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Going inside (of).
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 3, author=Chris Bevan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Rubin Kazan 1-0 Tottenham , passage=This time Cudicini was left helpless when Natcho stepped up to expertly curl the ball into the top corner.}}
  • Going to a geographic region.
  • Against, especially with force or violence.
  • Producing, becoming.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}
  • After the start of.
  • * , chapter=13
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}
  • (colloquial) Intensely interested in or attracted to.
  • (mathematics) Taking distinct arguments to distinct values.
  • (British, archaic, India, mathematics) Expressing the operation of multiplication.
  • (mathematics) Expressing the operation of division, with the denominator given first. Usually with "goes".
  • Investigating the subject.
  • Derived terms

    * bump into * get into * look into * walk into * gazinta

    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

    Statistics

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