Meaning of after in English

He collapsed at work and died soon after.
After nine years in Cambridge, Susannah and Guy moved to Watlington, where they lived happily ever after.
Let's feed the kids first and have our dinner after.
You have a good cry and you'll feel better after.
Mary left the company and I found another job shortly after.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Before, after and already

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Grammar

After, afterwards

After means ‘later than’ and ‘next in time or place’. …

After as a preposition and conjunction

After means ‘later than’ and ‘next in time or place’. …

After or afterwards as an adverb

We can use after as an adverb, but afterwards is more common. When after is used, it is usually as part of an adverb phrase: …

After: typical error

When after refers to future time, we use the present simple, not the future with shall or will: …

after

conjunction

/ˈɑːf.tər/ us

/ˈæf.tɚ/

at a time that is later than another event:

Three months after they moved out, the house was still empty.

soon after He was captured in 1940 soon after the fighting began.

shortly after Shortly after we set off, the car started to make a strange noise.

immediately after I went to the post office immediately after I left you.

More examplesFewer examples

Soon after we set off, Molly said she felt sick.
He bought a train ticket immediately after talking to her.
I'm going home straight after netball practice.
Soon after moving to London, she got a new job.
A year after leaving his job, he is still unemployed.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Before, after and already

See more results »

Grammar

After, afterwards

After means ‘later than’ and ‘next in time or place’. …

After as a preposition and conjunction

After means ‘later than’ and ‘next in time or place’. …

After or afterwards as an adverb

We can use after as an adverb, but afterwards is more common. When after is used, it is usually as part of an adverb phrase: …

After: typical error

When after refers to future time, we use the present simple, not the future with shall or will: …

after-

prefix

/ɑːf.tər-/ us

/æf.tɚ-/

coming after:

an after-dinner speech

an after-hours club

after-sales service

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Before, after and already

See more results »

(Definition of after from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

after | American Dictionary

after

preposition

/ˈæf·tər/

after preposition (FOLLOWING)

Add to word list Add to word list

following in time, place, or order:

What do you want to do after breakfast?

I expect to return to work after the baby comes.

Repeat these words after me.

I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.

It’s ten minutes after four.

Week after week (= For many weeks), he’s been too busy to help.

after preposition (BECAUSE)

as a result of; because:

After what she did to me, I’ll never trust her again.

She’s named after her aunt (= given the same name in her honor).

after preposition (DESPITE)

despite:

Even after everything that’s happened here, his behavior seems odd.

after preposition (WANTING)

wanting to find or have:

The police are after him.

He’s after Jane’s job.

after

conjunction us

/ˈæf·tər/

The house was empty for three months after they moved out.

after

adverb [ not gradable ] us

/ˈæf·tər/

Hilary drove up and Nick arrived soon after.

Idiom

after all

(Definition of after from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of after

after

Individuals entered the lactating herd after purchase or at calving, and left the lactating herd at dry-off or culling.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At the same time, the drive to build ' government churches ' after 1815 increased the need for revenue.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both cases and controls were followed up prospectively for 3 months after the case episode.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 15 min, 75 ml of the supernatant was inoculated on to two wells of each cell line.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Given that the algorithms produce different rankings, after new retrieval, one might expect that the more different the rankings, the better the combined performance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After 1919, and especially from 1926, central government provided subsidies for local authority building, in return for control over house design, size and location.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Grandparents were also said to 'keep' the children after school until one or other parent arrived home from work.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After the trial had finished, the 'objects of study', two male drug addicts, were to be detoxified with the help of methadone.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We live on £63 per week, that's me and three children and after that comes electricity and gas.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The patient's next follow-up appointment was scheduled for 2 months after treatment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After all, abductive reasoning is reasoning in a direction reverse to logical implication.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The number of households below the threshold after housing costs fell by 1.5 million from 13.9 to 12.4 million between 1996/7 and 2001/2.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We conducted follow-up interviews at 6 months after the initial interview.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Ethics after all relate primarily to purposes, not processes, and the purpose of research is to contribute to knowledge.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

After every refinement one could re-evaluate all the bounds from scratch but for efficiency it is desirable to specialise the constraint to the particular refinement.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of after, after-?

A1,C2,A2,B1