Word.ws English Dictionary

afterbear

afterbear noun: a descendant; one who comes after another genealogically.

Noun

afterbear (plural afterbears)

  1. A descendant; one who comes after another genealogically.
    • The first page of the Family Bible amplified and brought up to this irreverent date; sentimental, practical, witty, even scientific — yes, even psychological; a book for those who care about their forebears and their afterbears.1935, The Spectator
    • A teapot moulded in the form of Madonna, tastefully hand-coloured, named md dated (doubtless a century from now to be deemed to be some sort of religious vessel)? What else might we expect our afterbears to love and cherish in times to come?1988, Punch

Examples of afterbear in a sentence

  • Of the two lakes, the upper is the flood risk, the lower alder-overgrown, heterodox, once a clear expanse for winter village kids to frisk about, skating, sliding: the afterbears of silk throwsters.2009, Michael Kilby, More from Mephistopheles:
  • And so, like all its forebears and afterbears, like everything but his present bear, the photo-exposé idea curled up and croaked.2011, Michael Griffith, Trophy: A Novel:

Antonyms of afterbear

Forms of afterbear

pluralafterbears

Origin of afterbear

From after- + bear (“one who is”, literally “be-er”), modelled after forebear (literally “fore-be-er”).

Questions about afterbear

What does afterbear mean?
Afterbear means a descendant; one who comes after another genealogically.
How do you use afterbear in a sentence?
Of the two lakes, the upper is the flood risk, the lower alder-overgrown, heterodox, once a clear expanse for winter village kids to frisk about, skating, sliding: the afterbears of silk throwsters.
What part of speech is afterbear?
Afterbear is a noun.
What is the plural of afterbear?
The plural of afterbear is afterbears.

Words near afterbear in the dictionary

  1. afterattacks
  2. afterbath
  3. afterbaths
  4. afterbay
  5. afterbays
  6. afterbear
  7. afterbears
  8. afterbeat
  9. afterbeats
  10. afterbirth
  11. afterbirths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: afterbear (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:

Cite this entry: “afterbear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afterbear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.