Word.ws English Dictionary

later

UK/ˈleɪ.tə//ˈleɪ.tɚ/

later adverb: afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time). Also the comparative form of late.

Adverb

later

  1. Afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).
    • My roommate arrived first. I arrived later.
    • I arrived later than my roommate.
    Synonyms:
    afterwards
  2. At some unspecified time in the future.
    • I wanted to do it now, but I’ll have to do it later.
    Synonyms:
    later on
  3. (Manglish, Singlish) What if (something problematic or unanticipated happens); if not (something undesirable will happen).
    • Compare Malay nanti (“later; if not”)
    • Later you fall asleep how?
    Synonyms:
    sekali

Adjective

later

  1. Coming afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).
    • The Victorian era is a later period of English history than the Elizabethan era.
    • The eldest son was usually given the name of his paternal grandfather, later children those of other relatives.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii
  2. Coming afterward in distance (following an antecedent distance as embedded within an adverbial phrase)
    • I felt some leg pain during the first mile of my run and I strained my calf two miles later.
  3. At some time in the future.
    • The meeting was adjourned to a later date.

Interjection

later

  1. (slang) See you later; goodbye.
    • Later, dude.

Also used as

later is also the comparative form of late.

later meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

later in Hindi

more late
बाद में bād mẽ

later in Tamil

பின்னர்

later in Marathi

नंतर

later in Urdu

more late
بعد میں bād mẽ
More languagesFewer languages
later in Bengali
পরে
later in Telugu
ఆలస్యము ālasyamu, తరవాత taravāta
later in Malayalam
പിന്നീട്
later in Punjabi
ਬਾਅਦ ਵਿੱਚ
later in Gujarati
પછીથી, બાદમાં
later in Assamese
পিছত pisot
later in Nepali
पछि
later in Tagalog
mas nahuli, mamaya
later in Arabic
فِيمَا بَعْد fīmā baʕd, بعدين baʕdēn, لَاحِقًا lāḥiqan, فِيمَا بَعْدُ fī-mā baʕdu
later in Malay
nanti
later in Persian
دیرتر dirtar, بعداً ba'dan, بعدتر ba'dtar
later in Vietnamese
sau

Examples of later in a sentence

  • I'll come over later and see if I can fix your computer.
  • He once owned a painting of the house, which painting would later be stolen.
  • The book had lain on the attic floor until it was found decades later.

All 40 example sentences with later

Synonyms of later

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of later

Origin of later

* Adverb: From Middle English later, latere, from Old English lator, equivalent to late + -er. * Adjective: From Middle English later, latere, from Old English lætra, equivalent to late + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian leeter (“later”), West Frisian letter (“later”), Dutch later (“later”), German Low German later (“later”).

Words formed from later

Phrases with later

Words that rhyme with later

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about later

What does later mean?
Later means afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).
What is later in Hindi?
Later in Hindi is बाद में (bād mẽ). See Later meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is later?
Later can be an adverb, an adjective or an interjection.
How do you pronounce later?
Later is pronounced /ˈleɪ.tə/ (UK).

Words near later in the dictionary

  1. latently
  2. latentness
  3. latents
  4. lateover
  5. lateovers
  6. later
  7. Later Egyptian
  8. later on
  9. later, gator
  10. later, skater
  11. later, tater

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: later (page history and authors); later (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); later (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-later.ogg.

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