afterthought
/ˈæft.ɚ.θɔt/
afterthought noun: a reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient. Also the simple past and past participle of afterthink.
Noun
afterthought (plural afterthoughts)
- A reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient.
- She packed her sandals only as an afterthought, but she was glad she did.
- Something additional to the original plan or concept.
- This whole remodeling was an afterthought; we were only going to paint and call it good.
- The lighting in the corridor just dabbles of arcs, afterthoughts, smears. The light a grime that gives him a slight headache. The same type as when it has rained, remained humid, a fetid stale of ozone over everything.2007, Constantine Sult, chapter 1, in The Murder of Linen, [United States]: Brown Paper Publishing, page 1
Verb
afterthought (third-person singular simple present afterthoughts, present participle afterthoughting, simple past and past participle afterthoughted)
- To expound as an afterthought.
Also used as
afterthought is also the simple past and past participle of afterthink.
Examples of afterthought in a sentence
- The spring scrimmage, usually a yawn of an afterthought at Colorado, was packed.
- It goes downhill in Trespassers tho, where Dorianmance was an afterthought compared to Adoribull.
- It takes a whole lot to turn The Road Warrior into an afterthought.
Forms of afterthought
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | afterthoughts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | afterthoughts |
| present participle | afterthoughting |
| past participle | afterthoughted |
| past | afterthoughted |
Origin of afterthought
From after- + thought, probably modelled on forethought. Compare also the verb afterthink.
Questions about afterthought
- What does afterthought mean?
- Afterthought means a reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient.
- What part of speech is afterthought?
- Afterthought can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce afterthought?
- Afterthought is pronounced /ˈæft.ɚ.θɔt/ (US).
- What is the plural of afterthought?
- The plural of afterthought is afterthoughts.
Words near afterthought in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afterthought (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-afterthought.ogg.
Cite this entry: “afterthought.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afterthought. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.