Next

Pronunciation

• enPR: nÄ•kst, IPA: /nÉ›kst/
• Rhymes: -É›kst

Alternative forms

• neest dialectal
• neist Scotland

Origin

From Middle English nexte, nest, from Old English nīehst ("nearest, next"), superlative form of nēah ("nigh, near"), corresponding to Proto-Germanic *nēhwist ("nearest, closest"); equivalent to nigh + -est. Cognate with Old Norse næstr (Danish næste), Dutch naast, German nächst, Persian نزد (nazd, "near, with").

Full definition of next

Adjective

1. Following in a sequence.
2. Being closer to the present location than all other items.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
3. Nearest following (of date, time, space or order).
• 2013-07-20, Out of the gloom, solar plant schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
4. The next week is full.
5. (figuratively) Following in a hypothetical sequence of some kind.

Antonyms

• previous
• (closest to seven days ahead) last, this

Determiner

1. The one immediately following the current or most recent oneNext week would be a good time to meet.I'll know better next time.
2. Closest to seven days (one week) in the future.The party is next Tuesday; that is, not this Tuesday, but nine days from now.

Adverb

1. In a time, place or sequence closest or following.They live in the next closest house.It's the next best thing to ice cream.Next, we stripped off the old paint.
2. On the first subsequent occasion,Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next?When we next meet, you'll be married.

Antonyms

• previously

Preposition

1. On the side of; next to.
• 1900, The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices, translated by Walter Leaf (London, Macmillan), notes on line 558 of book 2:The fact that the line cannot be original is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest of the Iliad is not encamped next the Athenians ....

Noun

1. The one that follows after this one.''Next, please, don't hold up the queue!