afore
UK/əˈfɔː//əˈfoɹ/
afore adverb: before, temporally.
Adverb
afore (not comparable)
- Before, temporally.
- Stephano: He's in his fit now ; and doe's not talke after the wiſeſt ; hee ſhall taſte of my Bottle : if hee haue neuer drunke wine afore, it will goe neere to remoue his Fit :[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- Before, in front, spatially.
- He sees the soldiers, with their red coats lighted up by the torches carried afore, closing in round him.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 39
Preposition
afore
- Before; in advance of the time of.
- He said he was jealous, and craved something to ease his care. 'It's but a small thing I ask,' says he, 'but it will make me a happy man, and nothing ever shall come atween us. Tryst wi' me for Beltane's E'en on the Sker sands, at the green link o' the burn where the sands begin, on the ebb o' the...1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- "Oh aye!" his face lit up with a smile. "I mind that! Where was that?" "That was us when we all worked in the shop, afore the War." "Oh aye …?" he frowned. "Who …?" She took the photograph back from him and reached inside her apron pocket for her spectacles.1982, Edward Chisnall, Bell in the Tree: The Glasgow story
- Before; situated geographically or metaphorically in front of.
Conjunction
afore
- In advance of the time when; before.
- Now the hand of the Lord was vpon mee in the euening, afore hee that was escaped came, and had opened my mouth vntill hee came to mee in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumbe.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 33:22
afore meaning in Urdu and Kannada
afore in Urdu
- پہلے, اوپر, قَبَل از وَقت, ماقبل, پیشتَر, ماضی میں
afore in Kannada
- ಎದುರಿಗೆ
Examples of afore in a sentence
- Oota ma coupon afore ah gies y' the malky, ya bam.
- Ain't like dyin' is some newfanglement nobody ever heard nothin' 'bout afore.
- The old blue one were good enough for Miss Charley and Miss Melissa afore today.”
Forms of afore
| alternative form (obsolete) | affor |
|---|---|
| alternative poetic (obsolete) | avore |
Origin of afore
From Middle English afore, aforn, from Old English onforan or ætforan; equivalent to a- + fore.
Words formed from afore
Words that rhyme with afore
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about afore
- What does afore mean?
- Afore means before, temporally.
- What is afore in Urdu?
- Afore in Urdu is پہلے, اوپر, قَبَل از وَقت. See Afore meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is afore?
- Afore can be an adverb, a preposition or a conjunction.
- How do you pronounce afore?
- Afore is pronounced /əˈfoɹ/ (US).
Words near afore in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afore (page history and authors); afore (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); afore (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-afore.ogg.
Cite this entry: “afore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.