Previously

//ˈpɹiːvi.əsli// adv

adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    First; beforehand, in advance. archaic, not-comparable

    "I must, however, previously remark, that the power of generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very common amongst men or women."

  2. 2
    At an earlier time; already. not-comparable

    "The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously."

  3. 3
    Recapitulating the preceding episodes of a series. not-comparable
Adverb
  1. 1
    at an earlier time or formerly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aforetimealreadyantecedentlyantecedentlyat one timebefore

Example

More examples

"New York is one of the cities that I previously thought that I wanted to visit."

Etymology

From previous + -ly.

Related phrases

as previously mentionedpreviously disadvantaged

More for "previously"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.