on·ward | \ ˈȯn-wərd 
, ˈän- \
, ˈän- \variants:
or less commonly onwards \ ˈȯn-wərdz , ˈän- \
, ˈän- \Definition of onward
(Entry 1 of 2)
: toward or at a point lying ahead in space or time : forward
onward
adjectiveDefinition of onward (Entry 2 of 2)
: directed or moving onward : forward
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Examples of onward in a Sentence
Adverb
They have lived in that house from 1983 onward.
we must continue to move onward, or we will die in this desert
Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb From that grooving moment onward, Cadwallader and Hadid have been friends, slowly building their relationship through runway shows and custom outfits.
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Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Meet Digi-Bella—Bella Hadid’s Virtual Avatar Stars in Mugler’s New Film," 22 Oct. 2020 HSBC Holdings PLC, which worked on China’s recent dollar-bond deals from 2017 onward, wasn’t given a role this year.
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Frances Yoon, WSJ, "China Raises $6 Billion in Dollar-Bond Sale," 15 Oct. 2020 Tesa Totengco, a member of T+L’s Travel Advisory Board and the owner of Travels with Tesa, says United did an admirable job, particularly on a recent trip from Newark to Houston and onward to Cabo San Lucas.
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Paul Brady, Travel + Leisure, "These Travel Insiders Say Now's the Best Time to Go Abroad in Decades — Here's Why," 13 Oct. 2020 Through tonight: Rain will continue to fill in across the region this evening, remaining on the light side through 9 or 10 p.m. From that point, expect spells of moderate to heavy rain, especially from 2 a.m. onward.
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Greg Porter, Washington Post, "PM Update: Remnants of Delta to bring heavy rain overnight," 11 Oct. 2020 China’s pork output fell to its lowest level in 16 years last year after African swine fever swept through farms nationwide from 2018 onward.
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Dominique Patton Reuters, Star Tribune, "China's pork industry begins recovery after disease outbreak," 3 Oct. 2020 Nordstrom then sends the bins onward to TerraCycle, which weighs and sorts the material, then melts them down to usable raw material that will eventually become something new.
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Leah Prinzivalli, Allure, "Nordstrom Wants to End the Waste Problem in the Beauty Industry," 1 Oct. 2020 The United States faced a crossroads from 2005 onward, once Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans, and others refused to follow America’s script and instead resisted violently.
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Stephen Wertheim, The New Yorker, "How Trump Brought Home the Endless War," 1 Oct. 2020 Enria cited the fact that payment holidays on loans will only start to expire in several European countries from now onward.
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Charlie Devereux, Bloomberg.com, "SocGen, Santander Denounce Dividend Ban as ECB Weighs Fallout," 30 Sep. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective People who have had close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 should quarantine for 14 days after the exposure, the CDC says; quarantining is a way to try to halt onward transmission of the virus.
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Helen Branswell, STAT, "For many of Washington’s most powerful, Covid-19 public health guidance does not apply," 5 Oct. 2020 With the explosion of science fiction from the late ’30s onward, female robots and androids abounded.
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Paul Di Filippo, Washington Post, "In Ros Anderson’s ‘The Hierarchies,’ a robotic heroine longs for a better life," 30 Aug. 2020 Ambitious Capricorn ventures forever onward and upward, focused on reaching new heights.
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BostonGlobe.com, "Horoscope," 31 July 2020 Successful preventives must also bar onward transmission, said Daniel Barouch, a researcher at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University.
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James Paton, Fortune, "The earliest coronavirus vaccines may not protect you from getting infected," 15 June 2020 The available data, to date, on onward infection from cases without symptoms comes from a limited number of studies with small samples that are subject to possible recall bias and for which fomite transmission cannot be ruled out.
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Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "WHO butchers asymptomatic COVID comments. Here’s what they meant," 9 June 2020 Slow, Expensive Problems such as government agents and crumbling highways, which are beyond the control of APM Terminals, make onward travel of goods into Nigeria’s interior slow and expensive.
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William Clowes, Bloomberg.com, "Cargo Traffic Soars at Nigeria Ports on Benin Border Closure," 29 Apr. 2020 If they could be identified within that week and put into isolation with good infection control, there wouldn’t be onward spread.
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Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, "How the COVID-19 Pandemic Could End," 28 Apr. 2020 To avoid delays, testing will be conducted when guests arrive at their onward destination, according to Princess Cruises, which operates the ship.
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Morgan Winsor, ABC News, "Coronavirus live updates: Italy expands lockdown to entire country," 9 Mar. 2020
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'onward.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for onward
onward
adverbEnglish Language Learners Definition of onward
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to or toward what is ahead in space or time
onward
adjectiveEnglish Language Learners Definition of onward (Entry 2 of 2)
: moving toward the future or toward a more advanced state or condition
See the full definition for onward in the English Language Learners Dictionary
onward
adverbon·ward | \ ˈȯn-wərd , ˈän- \
, ˈän- \Kids Definition of onward
(Entry 1 of 2)
: toward or at a point lying ahead in space or time : forward From then onward she trusted him. The river flows onward to the coast.
onward
adjectiveKids Definition of onward (Entry 2 of 2)
: directed or moving forward
There's no stopping the onward march of time.
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Time Traveler for onward
The first known use of onward was in the 15th century
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