previous
UK/ˈpɹiː.vɪəs//ˈpɹi.vi.əs/
previous adjective: prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.
Adjective
previous (comparative more previous, superlative most previous)
- Prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.
- He is no better than the previous Prime Minister.
- He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the...1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- Premature; acting or occurring too soon.
- I was a bit previous it turned out, as I worked short-handed for ten days before I could find another hand.2010, Gerald Lynch, Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers
Noun
previous (countable and uncountable, plural previouses)
- An existing criminal record (short for "previous convictions")
- It turned out the shoplifter had a lot of previous.
- Simmons had eight previouses: robberies, burglaries, a couple of felonious assaults.1994, William J. Caunitz, Three complete novels: Black Sand; Suspects; One Police Plaza
- Synonyms:
- form
- A track record of similar behaviour, especially bad behaviour.
- For that Smalling will have to do his time grazing in the scapegoat’s paddock because his contribution here supplied hard evidence of a player lacking the football intelligence that is needed at the highest level. He has previous on that front and it is difficult to find any mitigation for the way...November 2 2014, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in guardian.co.uk
- Mitigation will be limited given his previous and as he has already attended tackle school he cannot return.2023-08-13, Gerard Meagher, “Owen Farrell’s red card likely to put England’s World Cup plans in disarray”, in The Guardian
- A record of previous hostility or conflict (between people).
- The two players refused to shake hands — there's a bit of previous there.
previous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
previous in Hindi
- prior
- पिछला pichlā
previous in Tamil
- முன்னிருந்த, முந்தைய, முன்னைய
previous in Urdu
- prior
- پچھلا pichlā
previous in Bengali
- prior
- সাবেক śabek
More languagesFewer languages
- previous in Telugu
- ముందు mundu
- previous in Malayalam
- മുൻ muṉ
- previous in Kannada
- ಹಿಂದಿನ, ಮೊದಲಿನ, ಮುಂಚಿನ, ಪೂರ್ವದ
- previous in Punjabi
- ਪਿਛਲੇ
- previous in Gujarati
- આગળ āgaḷ
- previous in Odia
- ପୂର୍ବବର୍ତ୍ତୀ
- previous in Sanskrit
- प्राञ्च् prā́ñc
- previous in Sinhala
- පළමු paḷamu
- previous in Nepali
- अघिल्लो, अघिल्ला
- previous in Arabic
- سَابِق sābiq
- previous in Persian
- پیشین pišin, نابه هنگام nâbehangâm
- previous in Thai
- ก่อนหน้านี้, ก่อน gɔ̀ɔn, ที่แล้ว tîi-lɛ́ɛo, เก่า gào
- previous in Vietnamese
- qua
- previous in Myanmar
- အလျင် a.lyang, ယခင် ya.hkang
Examples of previous in a sentence
- They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- Putin’s answered by simply stating he did not believe Ukraine had honored the previous ceasefires Moscow had unilaterally called, and that Kyiv has said Moscow never respected either.2025 May 10, Nick Paton Walsh, “Ukraine ceasefire call is aimed at forcing Putin to reveal his war goals to Trump”, in CNN:
Synonyms of previous
Antonyms
Forms of previous
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more previous |
| superlative | most previous |
| alternative form (archaic) | prævious |
| Noun | |
| plural | previouses |
Origin of previous
From Latin praevius.
Words formed from previous
Phrases with previous
Questions about previous
- What does previous mean?
- Previous means prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.
- What is previous in Hindi?
- Previous in Hindi is पिछला (pichlā). See Previous meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use previous in a sentence?
- They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.
- What part of speech is previous?
- Previous can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce previous?
- Previous is pronounced /ˈpɹi.vi.əs/ (US).
Words near previous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: previous (page history and authors); previous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ముందు (Telugu) (page history and authors); മുൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); previous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); previous (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); આગળ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); previous (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); प्राञ्च् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); පළමු (Sinhala) (page history and authors); previous (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-previous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “previous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/previous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.