before
/bɪˈfoɹ/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.93 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep
In front of in space.
prep
In the presence of.
prep
Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
prep
In store for, in the future of (someone).
prep
In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
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."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Old English foran Old English beforan Middle English bifore English before Inherited from Middle English before /bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: before//bifore, beforan, *furai, *per-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɪˈfoɹ/
- British English: /bɪˈfɔː/