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afterwards

UK/ˈɑːftə.wədz/US/ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/
adverbB1Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,924 of 15,258neutral

Afterwards means at a later time, once the thing before has finished. First that, then this.

It usually sits at the start or the end of a clause, and it always refers back to something already mentioned. British English adds the s and American English usually writes afterward, and both are correct. It differs from later, which can float free, since afterwards needs a preceding event. Soon afterwards and shortly afterwards are the common intensified forms.

Definitions of afterwards

  1. 1adverbafterwardsAt a later time, following something already mentioned.B1

    “We had dinner and went for a walk afterwards.”

Also accepted in games: afterward

Where it comes from

Afterwards is afterward with an old genitive s on the end, the same ending that gives towards. Old English æfteweard meant nothing more complicated than behind.

  1. Old English

    æfteweard — behind

  2. Middle English

    afterwardes

  3. English, today

    afterwards

Built from

  • -s · English — (adverbial genitive)

From Middle English afterwardes, from Old English æfteweard (“behind”) + -s (“(adverbial genitive)”). by surface analysis, after + -wards.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

afterwards in the wild

  • Finds are distinguished from "meteorite falls", which were observed during their descent and collected shortly afterwards.

    Meteorite find

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.