Before

/bɪˈfɔː/ · preposition

Meaning

Earlier than (in time)..

Definitions by Sense

1. Earlier than (in time).
2. In front of in space.
3. In the presence of.
4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
5. In store for, in the future of (someone).
6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.
8. At an earlier time.

Example Sentences

I want this done before Monday.

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

He stood before me.

We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.

His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.[…]But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again[…]she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

He performed before the troops in North Africa.

Synonyms for before

Antonyms for before

Related Words

Word Forms

• befo
• befo'
• b4
• be4
• befores

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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