Afterward

How to spell afterward

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce afterward

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does afterward mean?

1. adverbAt a later time; subsequently.

Afterward in a sentence

• We signed the lease and moved in shortly afterward.

• The meeting ran long, and afterward everyone went home exhausted.

Where does afterward come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows entirely from native English roots, with no borrowing from Latin or French along the way. It traces back to the Old English aefterweard, which combined aefter, meaning 'after' or 'behind', with the suffix -weard, meaning 'turned toward' or 'in the direction of'. That same -weard element still survives in everyday words like 'toward', 'forward', and 'backward', where it always signals direction or orientation. Originally the form carried a sense of facing or moving toward a later time, and over the centuries it settled into the plain adverb of sequence we use today, meaning 'at a later time'. The variant 'afterwards', with a trailing -s, arose from an old genitive ending and became the more usual form in British writing, while 'afterward' without the -s is the standard adverb in American English; the existence of both forms is exactly what makes the spelling feel uncertain.

How the word is built

• after (following in time)
• -ward (Old English -weard: directional suffix meaning 'turned toward')