# beside

Pronunciation: say "bi-SYD" /bɪˈsaɪd/

## Preposition

1. At or by the side of someone or something; next to.
   - Simple: Next to a person or thing, at their side.
   - _A small lamp stood beside the bed._
   - _He walked beside me the whole way home, saying nothing._
2. Not relevant to; having no bearing on the matter under discussion.
   - Simple: Not connected to the thing people are talking about.
   - _Whose fault it was is beside the point; the deadline has already passed._
   - _His remarks about the budget were beside the question the board had actually raised._
3. In addition to; as well as; besides.
   - Simple: In addition to, or as well as, something else.
   - _Beside her teaching duties, she runs the school newspaper._
   - _There were several reasons to refuse beside the obvious one._

## Adverb

4. In addition to everything else; as well; otherwise. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Also or as well, used mostly in poems and old stories.
   - _The old house held a thousand books, and dusty manuscripts beside._
   - _She had her small wages, and a modest inheritance beside._

## Origin

From Middle English beside (also besiden, bisyde), from Old English be sīdan or bī sīdan, meaning "by the side of, on the side of." By surface analysis it is be- plus side, and it is comparable to German beiseite ("aside, to one side").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/beside (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).