Into
name, prep, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 To or towards the inside of.
"Mary danced into the house."
- 2 To or towards the region of.
"We left the house and walked into the street."
- 3 Against, especially with force or violence.
"The car crashed into the tree."
- 4 Indicates transition into another form or substance.
"I carved the piece of driftwood into a sculpture of a whale."
- 5 Indicates division or the creation of subgroups or sections.
"A cow's stomach is divided into four chambers."
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 After the start of.
"About 20 minutes into the flight, the pilot reported a fire on board."
- 7 Interested in or attracted to. colloquial
"She's really heavily into Shakespeare right now."
- 8 Expressing the operation of division, with the denominator given first. Usually with "goes".
"How many times does 24 go into 48?"
- 9 Expressing the operation of multiplication. British, India, archaic
"Five into three is fifteen."
- 10 Investigating the subject (of).
"There have been calls for research into the pesticides that are blamed for the decline in bee populations."
- 11 Attacking or fighting a person. colloquial
"I'll be d—d if I don't sarve out that ould cantin', cheatin', blackguard, Meeks! As sure as eggs is eggs, I'll be into him like a thousand o' bricks!"
- 1 Initialism of Irish National Teachers' Organisation. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Mathematicians are like French people: whatever you tell them they translate it into their own language and turn it into something totally different."
Etymology
From Middle English in-to, from Old English intō, equivalent to in + to. Cognate with Scots intae.
Related phrases
More for "into"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.