Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use previously in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb

Previously means first; beforehand, in advance. Example: “The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously.”

Examples of previously by meaning

adverbAt an earlier time; already.

  • The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously.
  • Pliny the Elder, the Roman encyclopedist, declares that to urinate in a spot where a dog has previously done so results in loss of virility.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 239
  • In the lawsuit, Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with a “large amount of people,” some of whom had not previously been named including New Mexico Gov.2019 August 10, Julie Brown, Veronica Penney, Daniel Chang, Sarah Blaskey, “Jeffrey Epstein is gone, but allegations against powerful...

More sentences with previously

  • The black was previously unavailable, but in potting that red, he's now pushed the black on.From the entry on
  • Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground.From the entry hatch
  • They came from nowhere to take over second place, squeezing out the previously eighth-place team.From the entry squeeze out
  • Previously they had cut corners on the dinner menu, but this time they really did it up.From the entry do up
  • Quantum computing has the potential to break many previously unbreakable forms of encryption.From the entry quantum computing
  • The social network's new owner decided to replatform the controversial celebrity whose account had previously been banned.From the entry replatform
  • I'd previously been thought to be a thorough fool.From the entry thought
  • The previously limpid water was now muddy as a result of the struggle between the alligator and the wild boar.From the entry muddy
  • The team performed well even in previously unexperienced situations.From the entry unexperienced
  • Tyler Barrett, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, previously told CNN.2025 February 10, Monica Haider, “Dermatologists share how to treat dry skin”, in CNN, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2025. From the entry tyler
  • Lee previously served as mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, for eight years.2025 June 3, “Lee Jae-myung's rise from poverty to the South Korean presidency”, in France 24, sourced from Seoul (AFP), archived from the…. From the entry Seongnam
  • Previously a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, now he sits for Labour.2025 February 19, Dickon Ross, “Opinion”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 3. From the entry sit for
  • She also agreed that the levels of comfort were "immeasurably higher" than she had previously found.2024 March 20, Greg Morse, “XP64: the train the ^([sic]) [that] launched a new style”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 47. From the entry immeasurably
  • A failure to acknowledge heterogeneity results in overgeneralization which has been previously referred to as ethnic gloss.2024 January 1, Artie Evan J. White, “Racial Discrimination, School Racial Composition, and Anxiety Symptoms in American Indian…. From the entry ethnic gloss
  • Unlike the previously mentioned words, which are more straightforward, hagmaxxing is a complete curveball.2024 May 23, Brenna Cooper, “People annoyed after fake Hagmaxxing trend goes viral”, in LADbible, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025. From the entry hagmaxx
  • The remains of 62 people were dug up at the previously unknown archaeological site near Garforth.2023 March 13, Lianne Kolirin, “Skeletal remains of Roman aristocrat discovered in hidden lead coffin”, in CNN, archived from the original…. From the entry archaeological
  • Although the influx of start-ups was relatively higher previously, many start-ups have deadpooled too.2023 July 31, “Web3 start-ups’ growth stalls amid regulatory uncertainty”, in Businessline, Chennai, Tamil Nadu: The Hindu Group, →ISSN…. From the entry deadpool
  • They had previously shown a kind, thoughtful, non-sensational ethos with their Rail Restorations series for Channel 4.2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 46. From the entry non-sensational
  • Anhedonia is the reduced ability to experience pleasure from activities that were previously found to be enjoyable.2020, Erin Trifilio, John B. Williamson, Kenneth M. Heilman, “Chapter 9: Changes in Emotions and Mood with Aging”, in Kenneth M. Heilman…. From the entry anhedonia
  • The previously unfazed dog was suddenly very fazed and absolutely, positively refused to cross.2019 October, Mackenzi Lee, The History of the World in Fifty Dogs, Abrams, →ISBN. From the entry do someone a frighten
  • Previously, two other pigs with swine fever virus had drifted onto the shores of Kinmen.2019 March 18, Olivia Li, “Another Dead Pig That Drifted Ashore in Taiwan Found to Have African Swine Fever”, in The Epoch Times, archived…. From the entry Chukuang
  • Over the centuries, it’s expanded to include many people who were previously left out of it.2019 April 4, Sigal Samuel, “Should animals, plants, and robots have the same rights as you?”, in Vox. From the entry moral circle
  • Previously, business owners in Jiasian competed with each other and fought over business opportunities.2018, Lena Dominelli, editor, The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work, Routledge, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 134. From the entry carbon footprint
  • We had previously tried three years ago and were gazumped twice.2017 October 22, Nana Prempeh, quoting Nick Smith, “Gazumping: Your views”, in BBC News. From the entry gazump
  • Finally, these Lomekwian stone tools are of a different style than all previously known stone tools.2017, Christina De La Rocha, Daniel J. Conley, Silica Stories, Springer, page 31. From the entry Lomekwian
  • She hoped Tiffany would not ask too many questions that she had already answered previously.2017 July 7, Ruth Hartzler, Amish Romance: Amish Romance, Amish Romance Books. From the entry funeral pie
  • This is the future goal of BPM, to further automate previously unautomatable processes.2016, Aiden Sisko, The Quick Business Optimizations Handbook: Explode Your Income, Plug The Leaks In Record Time!, JNR Publishing via…. From the entry unautomatable
  • This is likely a recursive, two-way relationship—the “chicken or egg” of institutions and development referred to previously.2016, Paavo Monkkonen, Lucas Ronconi, “Comparative Evidence on Urban Land-Use Regulation Bureaucracy in Developing Countries”, in Eugenie…. From the entry chicken or egg
  • This is called classic counterconditioning because it involves countering the association that was previously classically conditioned.[2015, Ilona Rodan, Sarah Heath, editors, Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 43. From the entry counterconditioning
  • A previously asymptomatic 62-year-old male presented with ataxia and oscillopsia with progression over a 6-week interval.2015 May 12, Ory Wiesel et al., “Ataxia induced by a thymic neuroblastoma in the elderly patient”, in World Journal of Surgical Oncology…. From the entry oscillopsia
  • We have previously characterized a family 11 xylanase, Xyn11A-LC from alkalophilic Bacillus sp.2015 July 11, “Structural Insight into and Mutational Analysis of Family 11 Xylanases: Implications for Mechanisms of Higher pH Catalytic…. From the entry alkalophilic
  • It was previously regarded as haemangioendothelioma and was initially perceived to be low grade angiosarcoma.2015 June 1, Sunanda Chavva et al., “Rare Case of Spindle Cell Haemangioma”, in Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research : JCDR, volume…. From the entry haemangioendothelioma
  • Additionally, as pointed out previously, health care professionals are frequently not trained to prescribe opioid analgesics.2015 August 28, Darko Krnic et al., “National consumption of opioid and nonopioid analgesics in Croatia: 2007–2013”, in Therapeutics and…. From the entry opiophobia
  • Phylogenetic analyses of plant VPEs and legumains have been previously reported.2015 August 21, Valérie Poncet et al., “The Amborella vacuolar processing enzyme family”, in Frontiers in Plant Science, volume 6, →DOI. From the entry legumains
  • Previously, e-reading had been the domain of early adopters and new technology wonks.2014, Catherine Sheldrick Ross, Pleasures of Reading, The: A Booklover's Alphabet, page 53. From the entry e-reading
  • Operators routinely evaluate previously drilled leaseholds to see if more production can be pulled from a field.2014, Carolyn Davis, “Shale Daily column: New-Wave Recompletions Producing More, Costing Less, Say Operators”, in Natural Gas…. From the entry recompletions
  • Previously, it was assumed that PCOS presented in the young adult with oligomenorrhagia and infertility.2013, Liane Deligdisch, Nathan G. Kase, Carmel J. Cohen, Altchek's Diagnosis and Management of Ovarian Disorders, Cambridge University…. From the entry oligomenorrhagia

Meaning of previously

  1. adverb First; beforehand, in advance.
  2. adverb At an earlier time; already.
  3. adverb Recapitulating the preceding episodes of a series.

Full definition of previously

Questions about previously in a sentence

How do you use previously in a sentence?
Previously is used as an adverb. For example: “The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously.”
What is a short sentence with previously?
“I'd previously been thought to be a thorough fool.”
What does previously mean?
Previously means first; beforehand, in advance.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: previously (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 previously in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/previously. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.