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before

Pronunciation: /bɪˈfɔː/

The English word “before” has 15 meanings listed here.

preposition

  1. Earlier than (in time).
  2. In front of in space.
  3. In the presence of.
  4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
  5. In store for, in the future of (someone).
  6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
  7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

adverb

  1. At an earlier time.
  2. In advance in position or sequence; ahead.
  3. At the front end.

conjunction

  1. In advance of the time when.
  2. Rather or sooner than.

noun

  1. Of before-and-after images: the one that shows the difference before a specified treatment.
  2. That which occurred or existed previously.
  3. A previous form or instance.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English before /bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.