onward

onward — adjective

1. describing travel, movement, or time that keeps going toward a later stage or a

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describing travel, movement, or time that keeps going toward a later stage or a place farther away.

Example

After lunch, the bus began its onward trip through the mountains.

collocation: onward trip

Heavy snow blocked the hikers' onward progress near the old stone bridge.

collocation: onward progress

Common collocations
  • onward trip
  • onward progress
  • onward route
  • onward travel
  • onward climb
  • onward march
Synonyms
  • further

    common for an additional stage or a place beyond the present one.

  • continuing

    stresses that something does not stop, more than its direction.

  • forward

    can overlap, but is much more common as an adverb.

Grammar Patterns

onward journey

onward progress

onward route

onward travel

Usage Note

Usually appears before nouns such as journey, travel, progress, route, or march. Distinguish from adverb/1: this sense modifies the noun itself, while adverb/1 modifies the action or names the time after a point.

Common Mistakes

The trip onward was long.
The onward trip was long.
as an adjective, onward usually comes before the noun.

onward — adverb

Synonym discussion

Sense: adverb/1

'Onward' and 'onwards' usually mean the same thing, but 'onwards' is a little more common in British English, especially after time phrases such as 'from Monday onwards'. 'Onward' is more common in American English and is also the form used as an adjective: 'the onward journey', not 'the onwards journey'. 'Forward' is broader and more common in everyday speech for movement, plans, and progress. 'Ahead' often points to position or what is waiting in the future, rather than continued movement. Compare: 'After lunch, we walked onward along the coast.' 'The hardest part still lay ahead.'

onward ↗onwards ↗forward ↗ahead ↗

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Formed in Middle English from 'on' plus the ending '-ward', a direction-forming element from Old English '-weard'. The word first referred to movement toward the front or farther along, and later also came to mark time from a certain point forward, as in 'from Monday onward'.