Outward

//ˈaʊt.wɚd// adj, adv, noun, verb

adj, adv, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ward in a detached building connected with a hospital.
Verb
  1. 1
    To ward off; to keep out. obsolete, rare

    "Ne any armour could his dint out-ward; / But wheresoever it did light, it throughly shard."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Outer; located towards the outside.
  2. 2
    Visible, noticeable.

    "By all outward indications, he's a normal happy child, but if you talk to him, you will soon realize he has some psychological problems."

  3. 3
    Tending to the exterior or outside.

    "The fire will force its outward way."

  4. 4
    Foreign; not civil or intestine. obsolete

    "an outward war"

Adjective
  1. 1
    relating to physical reality rather than with thoughts or the mind wordnet
  2. 2
    that is going out or leaving wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Towards the outside; away from the centre.

    "We are outward bound."

  2. 2
    Outwardly, in outer appearances; publicly. obsolete

    "ANd thenne the quene lete make a preuy dyner in london vnto the knyȝtes of the round table / and al was for to shewe outward that she had as grete Ioye in al other knyghtes of the table round as she had in sir launcelot / al only at that dyner she had sir Gawayne and his bretheren"

  3. 3
    Away from home.
Adverb
  1. 1
    toward the outside wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
outwardsexternalouterapparentapparentlyappearing

Example

More examples

"No matter how we try, it is impossible to distinguish good people from bad people by outward appearances."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English outward, from Old English ūtweard, equivalent to out + -ward.

Etymology 2

From out- + ward.

Related phrases

outward-looking

More for "outward"

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