English
across
Pronunciation
  • (RP) enPR: ə-krŏs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɒs/
  • (GA) enPR: ə-krôs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɔs/
  • (cot-caught, Canada) enPR: ə-krŏs′, IPA: /əˈkɹɑs/
Preposition
  1. To, toward or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
    We rowed across the river.
    Fortunately, there was a bridge across the river.
    He came across the street to meet me.
  2. On the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).
    That store is across the street.
  3. (Southern US, AAVE) across from: on the opposite side, relative to something that lies between, from (a point of interest).
    • 1994 June 21, Thong P Tong <[email protected]>, "Re: Battle Tech Center", message-ID <[email protected]>, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games, Usenet :
      And make sure you're parked across the mall in the outside lot. […] Last time I was there, I parked in a parking structure and paid an arm and a leg for it.
    • 1995, Ronald Kessler, Inside the White House, 1996 edition, ISBN 0671879197, page 243 :
      On another occasion, Clinton asked Patterson to drive him to Chelsea's school, Booker Elementary, where Clinton met the department store clerk and climbed into her car.
      "I parked across the entrance and stood outside the car looking around, about 120 feet from where they were parked in a lot that was pretty well lit," Patterson recalled. " […] They stayed in the car for thirty to forty minutes."
    • 2011, Danielle Butler, Scars of Eternity, p. 30:
      A boy that sat across me politely introduced himself as Jackson Klausner.
  4. From one side to the other within (a space being traversed).
    The meteor streaked across the sky.
    He walked across the room.
    Could you slide that across the table to me, please?
  5. At or near the far end of (a space).
    • 2004, Josephine Cox, Lovers and Liars, ISBN 0060525479, page 78 :
      "Mam's baking and Cathleen's asleep. I've got a pile of washing bubbling in the copper, so I'd best be off." With that she was across the room and out the door.
  6. Spanning.
    This poetry speaks across the centuries.
  7. Throughout.
    All across the country, voters were communicating their representatives.
  8. So as to intersect or pass through or over at an angle.
    Lay the top stick across the bottom one.
    She had straps fastened across the conduit every six feet.
    • 2010, Alex Bledsoe, The Girls with Games of Blood, Tor, ISBN 9780765323842, page 147 :
      He parked across the end of the driveway, blocking her in.
  9. In possession of full, up-to-date information about; abreast of.
    • 2019, Lenore Taylor, The Guardian, 20 September:
      As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president.
Related terms Translations Translations
  • German: gegenüber
  • Italian: attraverso, dall'altra parte
  • Portuguese: do outro lado de
  • Russian: че́рез
  • Spanish: al otro lado de
Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: attraverso
  • Portuguese: perpendicularmente
  • Russian: поперёк
Adverb

across (not comparable)

  1. From one side to the other.
    she helped the blind man across;  the river is half a mile across
  2. On the other side.
    If we sail off at noon, when will we be across?
  3. In a particular direction.
    He leaned across for a book.
  4. (crosswords) Horizontally.
    I got stuck on 4 across.
Translations Noun

across (plural acrosses)

  1. (crosswords, often in combination) A word that runs horizontally in the completed puzzle grid or its associated clue.
    I solved all of the acrosses, but then got stuck on 3 down.


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