{"id":1575,"date":"2023-06-13T18:46:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T18:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:28:39","slug":"toward-vs-towards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/toward-vs-towards\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward vs. Towards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many grammatical mistakes are immediately obvious. Think affect vs. effect <\/em>or their vs. there vs. they\u2019re. <\/em>It\u2019s hard not to notice when these words are used incorrectly. But there are also other commonly mixed-up words that are harder to spot. Take, for instance, towards <\/em>vs. toward. <\/em>The difference between the words is that of a single letter, tacked like an afterthought onto the end of the word. It\u2019s reasonable to wonder if it really matters which word you use. Is there even really any difference between the two terms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward: Definition and Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Toward is a preposition that means \u201cin the direction of.\u201d For instance, you might say, \u201cShe is headed toward the door.\u201d Or, \u201cTo get to the ocean, walk toward the ice cream shop, then take a sharp right turn right before the bookstore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards: Definition and Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Though they\u2019re spelled differently, \u2018toward\u2019 and \u2018towards\u2019 actually have the exact same meaning and usage, Grammarly reports<\/a>. The only minor difference between the two words is the countries in which they\u2019re more commonly used. \u201cToward\u201d is considered more standard in American English, whereas \u201ctowards\u201d is more commonly used in British and Australian English, per Thesaurus.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means \u201ctowards\u201d is used just like \u201ctoward.\u201d For instance, you might say, \u201cHe is walking towards your house now,\u201d or \u201cThe bird flew towards the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are there two spellings of the same word?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But if \u201ctoward\u201d and \u201ctowards\u201d have the same meaning, why are they spelled differently? There\u2019s no real reason behind the weird linguistical quirk, aside from the fact that both words evolved at the same time and were considered equally valid. Deriving from an Old English term meaning \u201cin the direction of,<\/a>\u201d both \u201ctowards\u201d and \u201ctoward\u201d were commonly used starting as far back as a thousand years ago. Over time, the term \u201ctoward\u201d became the more popular term in America. Ultimately, you should feel comfortable using either word, whether you\u2019re in the U.S. or U.K., Merriam-Webster suggests.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of \u201cTowards\u201d and \u201cToward\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t quite believe that \u201ctoward\u201d and \u201ctowards\u201d mean the same thing, here are a few examples of both words in use in major publications. You can see that they have the same meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. \u201cLike others, he often charged toward<\/strong> a red line \u2013 incitement, libel, bullying \u2013 and then veered away.\u201d \u2013 Dan Bongino and the Big Business of Returning Trump to Power,<\/em><\/a> <\/em>The New Yorker<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \u201cMarine Le Pen shifted towards<\/strong> a more socialist economic policy, and focused less on far-right rhetoric.\u201d \u2013 Macron won in France \u2013 but Le Pen came closer than before<\/em><\/a>, The Washington Post<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. \u201cIn its latest attempt to fix widespread breakdowns in the federal student loan payment system, the Education Department said on Tuesday that it would use one-time waivers and adjustments to retroactively credit millions of borrowers with additional payments toward<\/strong> loan forgiveness.\u201d \u2013 Millions move closer to student loan forgiveness with one-time government waivers,<\/em><\/a> <\/em>The New York Times<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. \u201cPosey had a crush on Reed during the beginning of the show, and Hennig towards<\/strong> the end of its run.\u201d \u2013 13 Stars of Beloved Teen TV Shows and Movies Who Came Clean About Crushing on Co-Stars They Never Dated<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Buzzfeed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. \u201cRemember, too, that Trump lost nationally by 4 points, so a 4-point swing toward<\/strong> Republicans suggests a neutral national environment.\u201d \u2013 How the political environment is moving <\/em>toward<\/em><\/strong> Republicans, <\/em>CNN<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Other Grammar Resources<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Are there other grammar rules that trip you up? Make sure to check out some of our other grammatical content to get tips for your next email or paper, including our blog post on There vs. Their vs. They\u2019re<\/a> and our blog post on Until vs. Till vs. \u2018Til<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Many grammatical mistakes are immediately obvious. Think affect vs. effect or their vs. there vs. they\u2019re. It\u2019s hard not to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1576,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/1576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}