Beforehand
adverbEarlier than a particular event; in advance.
How to spell beforehand
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce beforehand
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does beforehand mean?
- adverbEarlier than a particular event; in advance.
Beforehand in a sentence
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Booking the tickets beforehand saved us a long queue at the venue.
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She always reads the meeting papers beforehand so she can ask sharp questions.
Where does beforehand come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is a native English compound formed from 'before' and 'hand', and it has been in use since the Middle English period, around the 1300s. 'Before' descends from the Old English 'beforan', built from 'be' (by) and 'foran' (in front), while 'hand' carried an old sense of 'side' or 'readiness' that survives in phrases like 'on hand' and 'at hand'. The combination originally meant something like 'in advance payment' or 'ready in hand', and from there it broadened to its modern meaning of 'ahead of time'. A useful spelling cue is that it is genuinely just the two whole words 'before' and 'hand' joined together, with no letters dropped or added, so writers who pause and read the parts rarely go wrong. Its close cousin 'aforehand' was once common but faded, leaving 'beforehand' as the standard surviving form.
How the word is built
- before (in front of, earlier)
- hand (here meaning the time at hand, in readiness)
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