Upward means moving or pointing toward a higher position. When you climb upward on a ladder, you're going up, rung by rung. When a balloon floats upward into the sky, it rises away from the ground. An arrow pointing upward shows direction toward the top of something.

The word also describes improvement or increase. When your test scores trend upward, they're getting better over time. A business with upward sales is making more money than before. People talk about upward mobility, meaning the ability to improve your position in life through education, hard work, and opportunity.

You'll see upward paired with different words to create precise meanings. Upward pressure pushes something higher, like when many people want to buy concert tickets and prices face upward pressure. Looking upward means tilting your head to see the sky or ceiling. An upward revision means changing an estimate to a higher number, like when scientists revise their prediction upward after discovering new evidence.

The opposite of upward is downward. When you understand both directions, you can describe all kinds of movement, change, and progress with clarity.