INWARD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inward mean? 

• INWARD (adjective)
  The adjective INWARD has 2 senses:

1. relating to or existing in the mind or thoughts

2. directed or moving inward or toward a center

  Familiarity information: INWARD used as an adjective is rare.

• INWARD (adverb)
  The adverb INWARD has 2 senses:

1. toward the center or interior

2. to or toward the inside of

  Familiarity information: INWARD used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INWARD (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or existing in the mind or thoughts

Context example:

a concern with inward reflections

Similar:

indwelling (existing or residing as an inner activating spirit or force or principle)

inmost; innermost (being deepest within the self)

inner; interior; internal (located inward)

private; secret (not expressed)

self-whispered (as if whispered to yourself)

Attribute:

internality; inwardness (preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values))

Antonym:

outward (relating to physical reality rather than with thoughts or the mind)

Derivation:

inwardness (preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values))

inwardness (preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Directed or moving inward or toward a center

Synonyms:

inbound; inward

Context example:

inward flood of capital

Similar:

incoming (arriving at a place or position)

Derivation:

inwardness (the quality or state of being inward or internal)

• INWARD (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Toward the center or interior

Synonyms:

inward; inwards

Context example:

move the needle further inwards!

Antonym:

outward (toward the outside)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To or toward the inside of

Synonyms:

in; inward; inwards

Context example:

smash in the door

 Context examples 

G protein-activated inward rectifier potassium channel 4 (419 aa, ~48 kDa) is encoded by the human KCNJ5 gene.

(G Protein-Activated Inward Rectifier Potassium Channel 4, NCI Thesaurus)

The feet are tight and cat-like, and the front toes may turn inward.

(Harrier, NCI Thesaurus)

I could see from Holmes’s rigid face that he was vibrating with inward excitement.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To live amidst general regard, though it be but the regard of working people, is like "sitting in sunshine, calm and sweet;" serene inward feelings bud and bloom under the ray.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Because ammonia is abundant in the outer solar system, this finding introduced the idea that Ceres may have formed near the orbit of Neptune and migrated inward.

(Recent Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Ceres' Brightest Area, NASA)

Ibutilide exerts its effect by activating a slow, inward, predominately sodium current rather than by blocking outward potassium currents.

(Ibutilide Fumarate, NCI Thesaurus)

Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

She listened with much inward suffering, but with great outward patience, to Harriet's detail.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

When this happens, the particles can feel the pull of Saturn’s magnetic field, which curves inward toward the planet at Saturn’s rings.

(Saturn is Losing Its Rings, NASA)

She did not feel that she could trust him, and she could not look at him nor think of him without an inward shudder.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)