You’re standing at a crossroads. Or maybe you're just trying to figure out if you should write "toward" or "towards" in that email to your boss. Honestly, the English language loves to make things difficult for no reason, and the suffix -ward is one of those pesky little holdovers from Old English that still causes a minor existential crisis every time we hit the keyboard. It’s a directional marker. It tells us where we are going, but it doesn't always tell us how to spell it correctly depending on which side of the Atlantic we're sitting on.
Basically, -ward comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *wer-, which means to turn or bend. Think about that for a second. Every time you use words with ward at the end, you’re literally describing the "turn" of your movement. It’s poetic, really. But in a world of autocorrect and standardized testing, the poetry often gets lost in the "is there an S at the end?" debate.
The Great British "S" Battle
If you’ve ever argued with a friend over "afterward" versus "afterwards," you’ve touched on one of the great linguistic divides. People get really heated about this. In the United States and Canada, the standard is usually to drop the 's'. We like things lean. We say "forward," "backward," and "toward."
But cross the pond to the UK, and suddenly everyone is adding an 's' like it’s going out of style. They say "towards," "afterwards," and "backwards." Is one wrong? No. Not really. But if you’re writing for a specific audience, you’ve gotta pick a lane. Oxford University Press generally notes that "towards" is the more common British English form, while the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook—the bible for American journalists—strictly demands "toward."
It's a stylistic choice that carries the weight of history. The version with the 's' actually stems from the Old English genitive case, used adverbially. It’s a ghost of a grammatical structure that died out centuries ago, yet we’re still typing it out in 2026. Weird, right?
Why "Forward" and "Foreword" Are Not the Same
Let's talk about the traps. You'd be surprised how many smart people mix these up. Forward is a direction. It's movement. It's progress. Foreword, on the other hand, is that boring part at the beginning of a book that you usually skip to get to chapter one.
The "fore-" means before, and "word" is, well, words. So it's "the words before." It has absolutely nothing to do with the -ward suffix, even though they sound identical when you're speaking quickly. I once saw a published academic paper use "moving foreword," and I nearly lost my mind. It’s one of those mistakes that makes an editor’s eye twitch. If you’re moving, you’re going forward. If you’re reading an introduction by a guest author, you’re in a foreword. Simple. Mostly.
Those Niche "Ward" Words You Forgot Existed
We all know the big ones. Upward. Downward. Inward. Outward. But the English language has some dusty corners where words with ward at the end live almost entirely forgotten.
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Take "seaward." You’ll find it in old maritime novels or maybe a coastal real estate listing trying to sound fancy. It’s evocative. It smells like salt spray. Then there’s "skyward," which feels inherently optimistic. You don't just look up; you look skyward. It implies a sense of scale.
Then there's the more obscure stuff:
- Hitherward: Meaning toward this place. It sounds like something out of a Shakespearean play, and honestly, we should bring it back.
- Thitherward: Toward that place. It’s the clumsy cousin of hitherward.
- Deathward: A bit grim, sure, but it’s a real word used in literature to describe the inevitable march of time.
You’ve probably noticed that we don’t use these in casual texts. If you texted your friend "I am traveling hitherward to the Starbucks," they’d probably think you were having a stroke or playing a very committed prank. But in creative writing, these variations offer a precision that "over there" just can't match.
The Adjective vs. Adverb Identity Crisis
Here is where it gets actually useful for your writing. There is a "secret" rule that most people follow instinctively without realizing it.
When you use a -ward word as an adjective, you almost never use the 's'. You say "an upward trend" or "a backward glance." You would never say "an upwards trend." It sounds clunky. It’s wrong.
However, when you use it as an adverb (describing how an action is done), the 's' becomes optional (in the UK) or frowned upon (in the US).
- Adjective: He gave a forward motion. (Always no 's')
- Adverb: He moved forward (or forwards).
If you want to play it safe and sound professional across the board, just drop the 's' every time. You’ll rarely be called out for it, even in London.
The Social Geography of "Untoward"
One of my favorite words in this category is untoward. It’s such a polite way of saying something is messed up. "Something untoward happened at the gala." It sounds like you're talking about a spilled drink, but it could mean a full-on fistfight.
Originally, "toward" meant "coming" or "approaching," often in a positive or "well-behaved" sense. So, "untoward" literally means something that isn't going the right way—it’s perverse, unexpected, or just plain inappropriate. It’s a word that carries a lot of social weight. It’s the "bless your heart" of directional suffixes.
Wayward Souls and Windward Sails
If you’ve ever been called wayward, it wasn't a compliment. It means you’re difficult to control or you’ve turned away from the expected path. It’s a contraction of "away-ward."
Then you have windward and leeward. If you sail, these are your lifeblood. Windward is the side the wind is blowing from. Leeward is the side protected from the wind. This isn't just vocabulary; it's survival. If you're on a boat and you don't know which way is windward, you’re going to have a very bad afternoon.
Why We Can't Stop Using Them
Despite our move toward (see what I did there?) shorter, punchier language, these words aren't going anywhere. They provide a sense of orientation that "to the left" or "up" lacks. They describe a vector, not just a location.
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When you say someone is "inward-looking," you’re describing a personality, a philosophy, a whole vibe. You aren't just saying they are looking inside their own body. The suffix transforms a simple direction into a complex concept. It’s one of the most hardworking suffixes in our vocabulary.
How to Handle These Words Like a Pro
If you want to ensure your writing is clean and doesn't trigger the "AI-generated" sensors or annoy a human editor, follow a few simple steps.
First, pick a dialect and stick to it. If you’re writing for an American audience, strip those 's' endings off. If you’re writing for a British or Australian audience, keep them for the adverbs but lose them for the adjectives.
Second, watch out for the homophones. Forward is a movement; foreword is a book intro. Don't be the person who mixes them up in a professional document.
Third, use the "niche" words sparingly. A "seaward" breeze is lovely in a travel blog; it’s a bit much in a technical manual about plumbing.
Finally, remember that "towards" is never wrong in speech, but "toward" is almost always safer in print.
To clean up your own writing immediately:
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- Scan your current drafts for "towards," "backwards," or "afterwards."
- If you're in the US, delete the 's' immediately.
- Check every instance of "foreword" to ensure you aren't actually talking about moving "forward."
- Use "untoward" the next time you need to describe a situation that is slightly awkward but you want to sound sophisticated while doing it.
- Experiment with "skyward" or "seaward" in your descriptive writing to add a bit of flavor that standard directions lack.
The goal isn't just to be "correct." The goal is to be clear. Words with ward at the end are tools for orientation. Use them to point your reader exactly where you want them to go.