Beside

//bɪˈsaɪd// adv, prep

adv, prep ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Otherwise; else; in addition; besides. literary, not-comparable, poetic

    "To all beside, as much an empty shade, An Eugene living, as a Caesar dead."

Preposition
  1. 1
    Next to; at the side of.

    "A small table beside the bed"

  2. 2
    Not relevant to.

    "That is beside the point / beside the topic / beside the subject / beside the focus of this discussion."

  3. 3
    Besides; in addition to.

Synonyms

All synonyms
abeamaboutaboveabreastadditionallyagain

Example

More examples

"Beside you, I'm only a beginner at this game."

Etymology

From Middle English beside, besiden, bisyde (also besides > besides), from Old English be sīdan, bī sīdan (“by the side (of), on the side (of)”). Compare Saterland Frisian biesiede (“aside”), German Low German bisied (“aside”), German beiseite (“aside, to one side”). Compare also Dutch terzijde (“aside”). By surface analysis, be- + side.

Related phrases

beside oneselfbeside the markbeside the point

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.