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previous

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

preeveeuhs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɹiviəs

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.

adjective

  1. not comparable

    Prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.

  2. informal

    Premature; acting or occurring too soon.

noun

  1. informaluk

    A track record of similar behaviour, especially bad behaviour.

  2. informaluk

    An existing criminal record (short for "previous convictions")

  3. informaluk

    A record of previous hostility or conflict (between people).

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (not comparable) Prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.

Used this way, previous is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Prior

previous yearprevious dayprevious night

Other combinations

previous chapterprevious sectionprevious experienceprevious twoprevious example

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • previouslyadverbDerived adverb

    At an earlier time or formerly.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • previous questionnounCompound term

    A motion calling for an immediate vote on the main question under discussion by a deliberative assembly.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: prior

latepremature

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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.