How to use afterthought in a sentence
24 example sentences · noun, verb
Afterthought means a reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient. Example: “She packed her sandals only as an afterthought, but she was glad she did.”
Examples of afterthought by meaning
nounA 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.
nounSomething 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.2007, Constantine Sult, chapter 1, in The Murder of Linen, [United States]: Brown Paper Publishing, page 1
- For most of the past three decades, the natural world was treated almost as an afterthought by world leaders.2019 August 30, Jonathan Watts, “Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN”, in The Guardian
More sentences with afterthought
- The spring scrimmage, usually a yawn of an afterthought at Colorado, was packed.2024 October 4, John Branch, “What Does College Football Have to Do With College?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York…. From the entry scrimmage
- It goes downhill in Trespassers tho, where Dorianmance was an afterthought compared to Adoribull.2021 December 14, trashwarden, Reddit. From the entry Dorianmance
- It takes a whole lot to turn The Road Warrior into an afterthought.2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road might already be the best action movie ever made”, in The Onion AV Club. From the entry action movie
- In the sharing economy, safety issues, taxes and regulation have tended to be an afterthought.2014 April 21, David Streitfeld, “Companies Built on Sharing Balk When It Comes to Regulators”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Jun 2014. From the entry sharing economy
- Some last thoughts in l'esprit de l'escalier—afterthoughts descending the stairwell as one remembers things unsaid.2011, Richard Kearney, “Epilogue”, in Anatheism: Returning to God after God (Insurrections), New York, N.Y.; Chichester, West Sussex…. From the entry l'esprit de l'escalier
- The name Daffy stuck, and to make it worse, Tony added "Duck" as an afterthought.1983, Mary Downing Hahn, Daphne's Book, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 5. From the entry daffy
- And even when the headsheet gives an afterthought to these things, the results can be dismal.1974, Laura Longley Babb, Of the Press, by the Press, for the Press (and Others, Too):, →ISBN, page 66. From the entry headsheet
- And milady said, “I am but an afterthought.2008, Ken Muller, RANDOM FITZ of KINDNESS, page 28. From the entry sparken
- And, of course," he afterthoughted, "most unfortunate for Mr.1961, H. Beam Piper, Four-Day Planet. From the entry afterthoughted
- That’s fine if the keyboard is more of an afterthought, and if you like the phonelike interface of a device such as the iPad.2023 October 26, Nicholas De Leon, “Tablet Buying Guide”, in Consumer Reports. From the entry phonelike
- Are male outfits just an afterthought?2017 October 11, Lurimi, Reddit. From the entry fantasia
- And yes, I'm aware of Conrad's decidedly unatheistic afterthought, in the very next sentence from this quote: “Or else decoyed.” It's from The Shadow Line.2015, Patton Oswalt, Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 171. From the entry unatheistic
- It's C with object oriented features bolted on as an afterthought and no-one in their right mind would want to base another language on it.2000 September 14, Brennan Young, “to all of you pro programmers out there.”, in macromedia.flash (Usenet). From the entry bolt
- For 28 footling days the 58-nation General Assembly had been debating the now-famous U.S. afterthought: to postpone partition and substitute a U.N. trusteeship for Palestine.1948 May 24, “United Nations: Over to You”, in Time, retrieved 14 Oct 2013. From the entry footling
- At times it seemed almost an afterthought, during an extended trial subject to ghoulish fascination, that Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died terrible deaths.2025 July 7, Nino Bucci, “Australian mushroom murders: Erin Patterson guilty verdict ends weeks of laborious detail and ghoulish…. From the entry ghoulish
- Or are the wellsprings of action and the drivers of history less ethereal: money, fear, the thirst for power, circumstance and opportunity, with culture as an afterthought?2018 September 14, Neil Gross, “Is Your Culture ‘Tight’ or ‘Loose’? The Answer Could Explain Everything”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry culturalist
- I had stumbled into the spare room — a nooklike study, an afterthought with a slanted ceiling — tucked in between the main rooms on Kurt's second floor.2008, Justin Evans, A Good and Happy Child. From the entry nooklike
- Almost as an afterthought, he reached up to check that the camera lens in the left shoulder-pad of his Kevlar bodyplate wasn’t obstructed, then adjusted his helmet mike.2004, Paul Finch, “Calibos”, in Robert Hood, Robin Pen, editors, Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, Wollongong, N.S.W.: Agog! Press, published…. From the entry bodyplate
- The derived word "proteomics", which has come into use almost as an afterthought, may be equally useful since it indicates something less well-defined but more ambitious.1998, N. Leigh Anderson, “Proteome and proteomics: New technologies, new concepts, and new words”, in Electrophoresis, volume 19, page 1853. From the entry proteomics
- Such messages or symbolic significances as Cawein’s poems contain usually are slight things, added, it often seems as afterthoughts, sometimes they mar the poems with anti-climaces.1917 March, Joyce Kilmer, “The Poor Step-Dame. (Some Considerations of the Poetry of the Late Madison Cawein.)”, in The Catholic World. A…. From the entry anti-climax
Meaning of afterthought
- noun A reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient.
- noun Something additional to the original plan or concept.
- verb To expound as an afterthought.
Questions about afterthought in a sentence
- How do you use afterthought in a sentence?
- Afterthought is used as a noun and verb. For example: “She packed her sandals only as an afterthought, but she was glad she did.”
- What is a short sentence with afterthought?
- “Are male outfits just an afterthought?”
- What does afterthought mean?
- Afterthought means a reflection after an act; a later or subsequent thought, action, or expedient.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afterthought (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use afterthought in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/afterthought. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
