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formerly

adverb

Simple meaning

At a previous time.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fawrmerlee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfɔɹmɚli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adverb

  1. Previously; once

  2. At a previous time

  3. At some time in the past

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

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Common Patterns and Combinations

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formerly knownformerly usedformerly heldformerly occupiedformerly made

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • formeradjectiveBase word

    Referring to the first of two things or persons mentioned (or the earlier one or ones of several).

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.