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
- 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
- At some unspecified time in the future.
- I wanted to do it now, but I’ll have to do it later.
- Synonyms:
- later on
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- At some time in the future.
- The meeting was adjourned to a later date.
Interjection
later
- 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.
Synonyms of later
Antonyms
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
- later days
- later on
- laters
- laterward
- laterwards
- save for later
- sooner or later
- catch you later
- I kill you later
- neverthelater
- no later than
- you later alligator
- shoot first and ask questions later
- smell ya later
- smell you later
- sooner rather than later
- sooner than later
- to be named later
Phrases with later
Words that rhyme with later
- translator
- alligator
- vibrator
- freighter
- terminator
- waiter
- crater
- curator
- gaiter
- incubator
- plater
- pulsator
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- skater
- cater
- collator
- creator
- dictator
- equator
- escalator
- greater
- relator
- rotator
- collimator
- dilator
- excavator
- frater
- gator
- inflater
- locator
- narrator
- palpator
- saeter
- slater
- traitor
- viator
- awaiter
- baiter
- citator
- corrugator
- dater
- deflator
- dominator
- emasculator
- glossator
- gyrator
- hater
- hydrator
- legator
- levator
- mandator
- mater
- migrator
- negator
- nitrator
- plaiter
- procreator
- spectator
- tater
- titrator
- 'mater
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
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.
Last updated:
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.
