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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sidelong.

Directed to the side; sideways.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsaɪd.lɑŋ/General-American/ˈsaɪd.lɒŋ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Directed to the side; sideways.

    not-comparable
    He cast me a sidelong glance.
  2. Slanting or sloping; oblique.

    not-comparable
  3. Indirect; suggestive; not straightforward.

    not-comparable
    She made some sidelong remarks about his manhood.
  4. Along the side of something.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

1520s, from Middle English sidlyng (early 14th century), from side + -lyng (“(frequentative)”) (modern English -le (“(frequentative)”)). Reanalyzed as side + long.

adv/ˈsaɪd.lɑŋ/General-American/ˈsaɪd.lɒŋ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Towards the side; sideways.

  2. obliquely

Where this word comes from

1520s, from Middle English sidlyng (early 14th century), from side + -lyng (“(frequentative)”) (modern English -le (“(frequentative)”)). Reanalyzed as side + long.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.