Learn English – What does ‘beyond’ mean in the following

meaningmeaning-in-contextprepositions

I know, beyond just means outside a limit or further away. E.g. when I say something is beyond compare, it means it cannot be compared to anything.

But in the following, I'm not sure if I understand what does each of these phrases really mean

  • Beyond good
  • Beyond bad
  • Beyond evil

If something is beyond good, is it bad?
If something is beyond bad, is it evil?
If something is beyond evil, is it good or bad?

Best Answer

In all of these cases, beyond is used as

b : in a degree or amount surpassing Ex. beautiful beyond measure

So in this example, you could instead say beyond beautiful to indicate that it is more beautiful than beautiful, which is the way the sentiment is constructed in each of your examples.

If something is beyond good, is it bad?

No, it's better than good. Might even be great.

If something is beyond bad, is it evil?  

It might be, but we can really only say for sure that it is badder than bad.

If something is beyond evil, is it good or bad?  

For most, evil is definitely bad. This something is more evil than just plain evil.

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