aside
/əˈsaɪd/adverb, adjective, noun
aside is spelled A-S-I-D-E. The wrong spelling people search most is asside: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 25 of all searches for the word. Aside is an adverb meaning “To or on one side so as to be out of the way”.
How many letters and syllables are in aside?
| Letters | 5: A-S-I-D-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 39 times per million words; the 2,523rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, asside, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell aside?
Aside is spelled A-S-I-D-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 25 of the searches for aside in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is aside?
Aside appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce aside?
- /əˈsaɪd/
Aside has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-aside.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of aside
- more aside comparative
- most aside superlative
- asides plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does aside mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
To or on one side so as to be out of the way.
Move aside, please, so that these people can come through.
- 2
Excluded from consideration.
joking aside
adjective
- 1
Not in perfect symmetry; distorted laterally, especially of the human body.
noun
- 1
An incidental remark to a person next to one made discreetly but not in private, audible only to that person.
- 2
A brief comment by a character addressing the audience, unheard by other characters.
- 3
A minor related mention, an afterthought.
This, then, is what we have done up to now in this book. (As I have been doing right along) may I make an aside? (An aside is a part in an old-time play or movie in which an actor steps out of character to say something to the audience of a
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Aside in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | à côté , en passant, soit dit en passant, aparté, incise |
| German | beiseite, zur Seite |
| Portuguese | à parte , aparte, comentário |
| Spanish | aparte, a un lado , inciso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does aside come from?
From Middle English aside, asyde, a-side, oside, from Middle English on side, from Old English on sīdan (literally “on (the) side (of)”), equivalent to a- + side. Compare beside.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).