How to Use across in a Sentence

across

1 of 3 preposition
  • The sun's light spread across the mountains.
  • A smile spread across her face.
  • She reached across the table to shake his hand.
  • We saw them walking across the street.
  • Airplanes flew across the sky above us.
  • Looking out across the ocean, he saw land.
  • We took a ferry across the river.
  • They traveled back and forth across the border.
  • He was seated across the table from me.
  • The accident happened just across the state line.
  • Hence, the next wars will be fought across physics and code.
    — Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 6 Nov. 2025
  • But, truth be told, none get high marks across the board.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
  • Stop Sales across the board on the fish.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 5 Sep. 2025
  • An immense smile spread across his face.
    — Martha Raddatz, The Atlantic, 25 May 2026
  • Then a lion’s roar broke across the plain.
    — Daniel Scheffler, Forbes.com, 12 Sep. 2025
  • But for women across the globe, it's thrown in your face.
    — Hedy Phillips, PEOPLE, 2 Oct. 2025
  • When that lightsaber goes flying across the Wampa cave?
    — Mike Ryan, IndieWire, 4 May 2026
  • My birds across the hollow had not uttered a note.
    — Charles Elliott, Outdoor Life, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Pippa leaned across the table with a fork in her hand.
    — Literary Hub, 9 June 2026
  • Even with the first flakes days away, grocery stores have been packed across the state.
    — Brandon Truitt, CBS News, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The idea that oil spreads across water is ancient.
    — Natalia Sánchez Loayza, Scientific American, 26 Feb. 2026
  • This is the best way to defuse tensions across the strait and things could move from there.
    — Zhou Bo, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The practice occurs in rivers and lakes across the state.
    — Lawrence Mower, Miami Herald, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Treasury yields fell across the board in response.
    — Arkansas Online, 6 Feb. 2026
  • Soft, muted pink adds subtle warmth and works across styles.
    — Sarah Lyon, The Spruce, 19 Feb. 2026
  • Bergen’s appeal cuts across key cruise markets.
    — David Nikel, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The project shot across the UK this summer.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The water glimmers across the street.
    — Ligaya Mishan, New York Times, 11 May 2026
  • Standards are higher across the board.
    — James Wallace, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
  • The city has opened two dozen splash pads and eight cooling shelters across the city.
    — Aaron Parseghian, CBS News, 2 July 2026

across

2 of 3 adverb
  • The streams are small enough to jump across.
  • They walked across to the other side of the street.
  • They reached across and shook each other's hand.
  • I saw them crossing the street and I waited until they were safely across.
  • At its widest point, the pond measures 150 feet across.
  • My feet were on a board across to take my weight.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2026
  • All my scenes were across from Dwayne.
    — Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 10 June 2026
  • Trim the tip of the branch straight across just above some leaf buds.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Trim the tip of the branch straight across just above some leaf buds.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Our sun isn’t even a million miles across.
    — Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 31 May 2026
  • Cut nails straight across and round the edges slightly.
    — Alex Vance, Parents, 18 Aug. 2025
  • The blooms are up to 8 inches across.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Use the file to straighten the nail's free edge straight across.
    — Ariel Wodarcyk, InStyle, 21 Feb. 2026
  • Finns used to drive across here to fill up on half-price gasoline.
    — Liam Denning, Bloomberg, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Adults can grow up to four feet across with as many as 26 arms.
    — oregonlive, 8 June 2023
  • The top tiles on this board, above the Green group, are five across.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • The green is as narrow as eight paces across but does widen in the back.
    — Josh Peter, USA TODAY, 14 June 2023
  • The piece stands nearly nine-feet-tall and spans more than five feet across.
    — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The bowl is big, almost as wide across as a soccer ball.
    — Bud Kennedy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Sep. 2025
  • French mandolines have one blade that goes all the way across.
    — Andrea Wurzburger, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 June 2023
  • And the statement doesn’t have to be more than a few words to get your point across.
    — Nancy Kruh, Peoplemag, 21 Nov. 2023
  • Small seed potatoes less than 2 inches across can be kept whole.
    — Sheryl Geerts, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Feb. 2026
  • His run was the first of three the Wildcats pushed across in the inning.
    — Mike Puzzanghera, BostonGlobe.com, 17 June 2023
  • Sometimes simple statements are the best way to get your point across.
    — Chris Perkins, Sun Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2023
  • Each shrub will be about 4 foot tall and at minimum 4 feet across.
    — oregonlive, 16 Apr. 2023
  • The seats are well-padded and super wide at 38-inches across.
    — Brad Japhe, Travel + Leisure, 1 May 2023
  • The show has been a huge hit for Netflix but will move across in less than two year’s time.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Hold the lumber against the backstop and run the saw straight across and out the other side.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 21 Nov. 2022
  • But what is true is that Moore’s bad-good guys never fully got their point across.
    — WIRED, 29 Oct. 2022
  • Some praised the Grammy-winning singer and shared that the scene still got her point across.
    — Samantha Olson, Seventeen, 26 Oct. 2022

across

3 of 3 adjective
  • In his five seasons in Arizona, Palmer etched his name across team record books.
    — Katherine Fitzgerald, azcentral, 5 June 2019
  • Abend made a bee-line across and became another passing option for Totsch.
    — Daniel Karell, The Courier-Journal, 13 July 2017
  • On the north, dozens of rows of produce stretch the across property with tall trellises strung up to hold large vining plants.
    — Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 17 Aug. 2022
  • Across time and space, hope and despair, Americans have risen to serve their country and found a buoyant Grace.
    — Elliot Kaufman, National Review, 4 July 2017
  • According to astronomers who captured this image, the comet's tail was several times longer at this point than Earth is across.
    — Erika K. Carlson, Discover Magazine, 11 Dec. 2019
  • To evoke the iconic mob wife, Polko styled Teigen's hair into a loose bob with a smooth, all-across fringe with ends that Polko curled inward.
    — Leah Prinzivalli, Allure, 18 Mar. 2019
  • Woog competed against Sauer in high school, college and eventually across benches as coaches.
    — Chad Graff, Twin Cities, 2 Feb. 2017
  • Dimorphos, which is roughly 530 feet across, orbits Didymos, its parental body, at a distance of less than a mile.
    — Shepard Price, San Antonio Express-News, 26 Sep. 2022
  • Reflecting its sporting brief, the new model will only be available with four seats; the three-across rear bench is replaced by two individual thrones.
    — Greg Kable, Car and Driver, 20 May 2021
  • Insigne then drew Donnarumma into action, after firing a shot across goal straight into the enormous frame of the prodigious 19-year-old.
    — SI.com, 15 Apr. 2018
  • First, Cuadrado fired a cross-cum-shot across goal which was cruelly deflected into his own net by Milan Skriniar in the 87th minute.
    — SI.com, 28 Apr. 2018
  • Salah completed the rout 15 minutes from the end, receiving the ball from Mane before driving a powerful effort across goal into the bottom corner.
    — USA TODAY, 4 Nov. 2017
  • The narrative quickly shatters, moving backwards and forwards across generations—spanning multiple family tragedies, all involving the fjord and the house that Signe still lives in.
    — Alex Shephard, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2022
  • Across professional fields, a whole multitude of conversations—meetings, interviews, and conference calls—need to be transcribed and recorded for future reference.
    — Greg Noone, The Atlantic, 20 June 2017
  • The campaign highlights fixes the bank has made, as well as its more than 165-year-old history, including its role transporting gold across American as the nation was expanding westward.
    — Deon Roberts, charlotteobserver, 7 May 2018
  • And, because such practices are passed across generations, any systematic harm done to a community’s ability to support children will ripple across time; in the United States, such systematic harm has been waged on people of color.
    — Jack Schneider, The Atlantic, 22 Jan. 2018
  • Earlier in the evening, Ross was honored with the Classic Contribution Award for his skills as an arranger, orchestrator, conductor and composer across film, the recording industry and television.
    — Tallie Spencer, Billboard, 16 May 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'across.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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