Alongside means next to something and running parallel with it. A boat pulling in alongside the quay, a lorry sitting alongside you at the lights, a dog trotting alongside the bike.
The second use is about company and time rather than position: working alongside a team of nurses, studying alongside a full-time job, a new tax brought in alongside the old one. There it means together with, and it carries a faint suggestion of equals, since you work alongside a colleague and 'under' would say something quite different. It can drop its object and act as an adverb, as in 'a police car drew alongside'. There is no 'of' after it, so alongside the river and never 'alongside of the river', and no hyphen either. Beside is the plainer word for position, while alongside adds the picture of two things lined up.
1prepositionalongsideNext to something and parallel with it.
“They moored the barge alongside the older boats.”
2prepositiontogetherTogether with, or at the same time as.
“She trained as a nurse alongside raising two children.”
synonyms: with, together with
3adverbcloseClose to the side of something.
“A taxi slowed and pulled alongside.”
Alongside is a plain English build: along plus side, two everyday words glued together, with a rarer alongsides also on record. Nothing was borrowed and nothing was translated, so the word says exactly what its two halves say.
From along + side; compare alongsides.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Directions & Position
First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word