Farther or further?
farther is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of further. (See also the usage notes at further.)”; further is an adjective meaning “More distant; relatively distant”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) further is about 29 times as common as farther.
What is the difference between farther and further?
| farther | further | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb, verb | verb, adjective, adverb |
| Meaning | Alternative form of further. (See also the usage notes at further.) | To help forward; to assist To encourage growth; to support progress or growth of something; to promote More distant; relatively distant |
| Example | none recorded | Further the economy |
| Pronunciation | /ˈfɑːðə/ /ˈfɑɹðɚ/ | /ˈfɜːðə/ /ˈfɝ.ðɚ/ /ˈfəːðə/ |
| In writing | 7.1 times per million words | 204 times per million words |
Sources: farther and further in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of farther and further
farther
- 1
Alternative form of further. (See also the usage notes at further.)
- 2
Alternative form of further. (See also the usage notes at further.)
- 3
datedAlternative form of further
further
- 1
To help forward; to assist
- 2
More distant; relatively distant
See those two lampposts? Run to the further one
- 3
To, at or over a greater distance in space, time or other extent
I can run further than you
- 4
To encourage growth; to support progress or growth of something; to promote
Further the economy
- 5
More, additional
I have one further comment to make
- 6
To a greater extent or degree
Of the two civilisations, this one was further advanced
- 7
Beyond what is already stated or is already the case
Chapter 10 further explains the ideas introduced in Chapter 9
- 8
Also; in addition; furthermore; moreover
It is overlong, and further, it makes no sense
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, farther or further?
farther appears 7.1 times per million words; further 204 times per million words.
farther 7.1 times per million wordsfurther 204 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search farther vs further?
“farther vs further” is searched about 22,200 times a month on Google and 1,720 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“further vs farther”, “farther or further”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.