Aftereffect
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any delayed effect; an effect which is not immediately manifested.
"And then Rook snapped out of it and noticed (in this strange state he was in—an aftereffect of the soma?) as clear as day everything—almost as if a sixth sense had become acute and he was fully aware of his eminent and imminent death and he saw everything crystal clearly and noticed that Anatoli, usually calm as a cucumber on the set, was now sweating and not calm and perhaps claustrophobic?"
- 2 any result that follows its cause after an interval wordnet
- 3 a delayed effect of a drug or therapy wordnet
Example
More examples"And then Rook snapped out of it and noticed (in this strange state he was in—an aftereffect of the soma?) as clear as day everything—almost as if a sixth sense had become acute and he was fully aware of his eminent and imminent death and he saw everything crystal clearly and noticed that Anatoli, usually calm as a cucumber on the set, was now sweating and not calm and perhaps claustrophobic?"
Etymology
From after- + effect.
More for "aftereffect"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.