Word.ws English Dictionary

former

UK/ˈfɔːmə//ˈfɔɹmɚ/

former adjective: previous.

Adjective

former (not comparable)

  1. Previous.
    • A former president
    • the former East Germany

Noun (1)

former

  1. (singular, singular-only) The first of aforementioned two items.
    • The former is a good idea but the latter is not.
    • We have two cars, a red one and a blue one. We won the former on a game show.
    Antonyms:
    latter

Noun (2)

former (plural formers)

  1. (singular, singular-only) Someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.
    • Dave was the former of the company.
  2. (singular, singular-only) An object used to form something, such as a template, gauge, or cutting die.
    • The brick arch was built using a wooden former.
  3. (UK, singular, singular-only) Someone in, or of, a certain form (class).
    • Fifth-former.
    • Sixth-former.

former meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

former in Hindi

previous
पूर्ववर्ती pūrvavartī, पिछला pichlā
first of aforementioned two items
पूर्ववर्ती pūrvavartī, पहला pahlā

former in Tamil

முன்னவர்

former in Marathi

former, ex-
माजी mājī

former in Urdu

former, prior, precedent, preceding, foregoing
سابق sābiq
More languagesFewer languages
former in Bengali
সাবেক śabek, প্রাক্তন prakton, ভূতপূর্ব bhutopurbo, পূর্বতন purboton
former in Telugu
ముందరి mundari, మునుపటి munupaṭi
former in Malayalam
പണ്ടത്തെ paṇṭatte
former in Kannada
ಮಾಜಿ māji
former in Punjabi
ਪਹਿਲਾ pahilā
former in Gujarati
ભૂતપૂર્વ
former in Odia
ପୂରୁବ puruba
former in Sanskrit
प्रत्न pratná
former in Sinhala
පෙර pera
former in Nepali
पूर्ववर्ती
former in Pashto
پخوانی pëxwânay
former in Arabic
سَابِق sābiq
former in Malay
bekas, mantan
former in Indonesian
mantan, terdahulu
former in Persian
سابق sâbeq, قدیم qadim, اسبق asbaq, اولی avvali
former in Thai
เก่า gào, ก่อน gɔ̀ɔn, อดีต à-dìit, ก่อนหน้า
former in Vietnamese
cũ, xưa, nguyên, cựu
former in Myanmar
ယခင် ya.hkang

Examples of former in a sentence

  • Bananas are tastier than parsnips, but the latter’s nutritional value is higher than the former’s.
  • The former-slaves-turned-abolitionists Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano were the chief organizers of the Sons of Africa.2007, Junius P. Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World:

All 40 example sentences with former

Synonyms of former

9 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

1 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of former

Forms of former

alternative abbreviationfmr
alternative abbreviationfmr.
pluralformers

Origin of former

Inherited from Middle English former, comparative of forme (“first”), from Old English forma (“first”), descended from Proto-Germanic *frumô. Parallel to prior (via Latin), as comparative form from same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to first and fore (thence before), from Proto-Germanic.

Inherited from Middle English formere. By surface analysis, form + -er.

Words formed from former

Words that rhyme with former

Questions about former

What does former mean?
Former means previous.
What is former in Hindi?
Former in Hindi is पूर्ववर्ती (pūrvavartī), पिछला (pichlā), पहला (pahlā). See Former meaning in Hindi.
How do you use former in a sentence?
Bananas are tastier than parsnips, but the latter’s nutritional value is higher than the former’s.
What part of speech is former?
Former can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce former?
Former is pronounced /ˈfɔɹmɚ/ (US).

Words near former in the dictionary

  1. formen
  2. formenism
  3. forment
  4. Formentera
  5. formentioned
  6. former
  7. former Soviet Union
  8. former times
  9. former USSR
  10. former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  11. formeret

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: former (page history and authors); former (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); माजी (Marathi) (page history and authors); سابق (Urdu) (page history and authors); പണ്ടത്തെ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಮಾಜಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਪਹਿਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); former (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ପୂରୁବ (Odia) (page history and authors); प्रत्न (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); පෙර (Sinhala) (page history and authors); former (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-former.ogg.

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