Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Keep "aforetime" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.
If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.
Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "aforetime" intact in the sentence you are editing.
Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.
Read the full sentence after the swap. Keep the synonym only when the sentence becomes clearer or more precise.
Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.
After choosing a replacement for "aforetime", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.
If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "aforetime" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.
7 total sentences available.
Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait.[…]"
Source: wiktionary
She and the Tertium Quid enjoyed each other's society among the graves of men and women whom they had known and danced with aforetime.
Source: wiktionary
To him, despite the housekeeper, there was an impropriety in Ursula, the elderly ex-parson, and Andrew living under the one roof - a matter that, for all his aforetime vigilance, had escaped Mr. Civil.
Source: wiktionary
In the modern kitchen waste is guarded against as strenuously as ever in the aforetimes; but the remnants are used with knowledge—with a scientific attention to flavor and to the nature of the ingredients.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 7 available sentences.
Closest matches include before, beforetime, earlier, heretofore, historically.
Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.