I read several books on my vacation. In doing so, I encountered the variations of several words, spelled differently by at least a half-dozen authors. This sparked a question I had researched at one time, but had not written about previously.

In case you have wondered about the following words, here is a short explanation about whether they are correctly spelled with (or without) an ’s’ at the end.

The following ARE correct either way:

toward/towards

backward/backwards

forward/forwards

upward/upwards

downward/downwards

inward/inwards

**Here is the only one that is different: outward is only correct without an ‘s’. That is because it signifies the plural form of the word if you add an ’s’. (This does not apply to the other words in the list above.)

 So, there you have it. The dictionary has spoken.