onward vs towards

onward

adj
  • Advanced in a forward direction or toward an end. 

  • Moving forward. 

adv
  • In a forward direction. 

verb
  • To keep going; to progress or persevere. 

towards

adj
  • Near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward. 

adv
  • In the direction of something (indicated by context). 

How often have the words onward and towards occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )