adverb · neutral

afterwards

UK/ˈɑːftəwəd/US/ˈæftərwərdz/AF·ter·wards

Band 5-6speakingtask2

at a later time; after something else has happened

Examples

We had dinner and afterwards we went to a concert.

She apologised and afterwards left the room quietly.

The new rules were introduced in June and came into force afterwards.

Band 8 sentence

The committee met in the morning; afterwards, they published a summary of their conclusions online.

Collocations

  • shortly afterwards
  • immediately afterwards

Word family

afterward adverb (US variant)afterwards adverb (BrE)

Common mistakes

afterwordafterwards

afterwordsafterwards

Say it for a higher band

5later6after that7+afterwards

Synonyms

later

subsequently

Easily confused

afterward

He finished the meeting and afterward he called his family.

later

I'll do it later, when I have more time.

Related words

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In -ward

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