How do you use the word "across" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "across": Can you swim across the river? I ran across an old friend near the bank.

Across Meaning

/əˈkɹɒs/

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

prepTo, toward, or from the far side of (something that lies between two points of interest).

prepOn the opposite side of (something that lies between two points of interest).

Sentence Examples

Can you swim across the river?

I ran across an old friend near the bank.

It's too wide. We can't swim across.

CEFR Practice Quiz

The cat ran ____ the road just as the car approached.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

We walked ____ the bridge to get to the other side of the river.

Word Origin & History

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Old Latin en Latin in Old French en Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der.? Proto-Italic *kruks /*krukis Latin crux Old French crois Anglo-Norman an croizbor. Middle English acros English across From Middle English acros, from early Middle English a-croiz, a-creoyz, from Anglo-Norman an (“in, on”) + croiz (“in the form of a cross”). More at cross. By surface analysis, a- + cross.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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."" — 1995, Ronald Kessler, Inside the White House, published 1996, →ISBN, page 243:

"A boy that sat across me politely introduced himself as Jackson Klausner." — 2011, Danielle Butler, Scars of Eternity, page 30:

"I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing." — 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

""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." — 2004, Josephine Cox, Lovers and Liars, →ISBN, page 78:

"Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals." — 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

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