Beside
/bɪˈsaɪd/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
prepNext to; at the side of.
prepNot relevant to.
Sentence Examples
I'm beside myself with joy.
Beside you, I'm only a beginner at this game.
He sat beside her all night.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She sat quietly ____ her sleeping child in the hospital room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He sat ____ the window and watched the rain fall on the street.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"To all beside, as much an empty shade,
An Eugene living, as a Caesar dead."
— 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
"April 8 1805, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Orange Blossom"
O how the honey tells the tale of its birthplace to the sense of sight and odour! and to how many minute and uneyeable insects beside!"
—
"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
— 1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 92:
"Eternal form shall still divide
The eternal soul from all beside;
And I shall know him when we meet: […]"
— 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 69:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She sat quietly ____ her sleeping child in the hospital room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He sat ____ the window and watched the rain fall on the street.