previously

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English previous

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-Germanic *-ê

Proto-Germanic *-līkê

Proto-West Germanic *-līkē

Old English -līċe

Middle English -ly

English -ly

English previously

From previous + -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːvi.əsli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹivi.əsli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

previously (not comparable)

1. (now archaic, with present-tense constructions) First; beforehand, in advance.
   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC:

     I must, however, previously remark, that the power of generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very common amongst men or women.

2. (with past-tense constructions) At an earlier time; already.

   The discovery of a previously unknown species had taken place nearly two years previously.

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 239:

     Pliny the Elder, the Roman encyclopedist, declares that to urinate in a spot where a dog has previously done so results in loss of virility.

   • 2019 August 10, Julie Brown, Veronica Penney, Daniel Chang, Sarah Blaskey, “Jeffrey Epstein is gone, but allegations against powerful associates linger”, in Tampa Bay Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 April 2026:

     In the lawsuit, Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with a “large amount of people,” some of whom had not previously been named including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson […].

3. (television) Recapitulating the preceding episodes of a series.

Derived terms

• as previously mentioned
• previously disadvantaged

Translations

at an earlier time

• Ahtna: hwtsecʼa
• Arabic: قَبْلًا (qablan), قَبْل (ar) (qabl)
• Aramaic: הידין
• Armenian: նախապես (hy) (naxapes), նախօրոք (hy) (naxōrokʻ), նախորդիվ (naxordiv)
• Bulgarian: преди (bg) (predi), някога (bg) (njakoga)
• Catalan: anteriorment (ca), prèviament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 以前 (ji⁵ cin⁴), 舊時 / 旧时 (gau⁶ si⁴)

  Mandarin: 以前 (zh) (yǐqián), 先前 (zh) (xiānqián)

• Corsican: anteriormente
• Czech: dříve (cs), předtím (cs)
• Danish: før (da)
• Dutch: tevoren (nl), vroeger (nl)
• Esperanto: antaŭe
• Finnish: aikaisemmin (fi), aiemmin (fi)
• French: autrefois (fr), auparavant (fr), antérieurement (fr), précédemment (fr)
• Galician: previamente
• Georgian: ადრე (adre), წინათ (c̣inat)
• German: zuvor (de), vorher (de), früher (de), ehemals (de)
• Greek: προηγουμένως (el) (proïgouménos)
• Hindi: पहले (hi) (pahle)
• Hungarian: azelőtt (hu), az előzőekben, korábban (hu)
• Icelandic: áður (is)
• Indonesian: dulu (id)
• Irish: roimh ré
• Italian: precedentemente (it), anteriormente (it), in antecedenza, antecedentemente (it), in precedenza (it)
• Japanese: 予め (ja) (あらかじめ, arakajime), 以前 (ja) (いぜん, izen), 予て (ja) (かねて, kanete), 先に (ja) (さきに, saki-ni)
• Korean: 앞서 (ko) (apseo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لەمەوبەر (lemewber)

• Latin: prius (la), anteā (la)
• Low German: fördem, fördęm
• Maltese: dari
• Old English: furþum
• Persian: قبلا (fa) (qablan)
• Polish: poprzednio (pl)
• Portuguese: antes (pt), anteriormente (pt)
• Russian: пре́жде (ru) (préžde), ра́нее (ru) (ráneje), ра́ньше (ru) (ránʹše)
• Sanskrit: प्रथमम् (sa) (prathamám)
• Scottish Gaelic: ro làimh
• Serbo-Croatian: prethodno (sh), претходно
• Southern Altai: эртегиде (ertegide)
• Spanish: anteriormente (es), previamente (es), con anterioridad
• Swedish: förut (sv), tidigare (sv)
• Urdu: پہلے (pahle)
• Uzbek: avval (uz)
• Welsh: o'r blaen, yn flaenorol

recapitulating the preceding episodes of a series

• Dutch: wat voorafging (literally “what preceded”)
• Hungarian: az előző részek tartalmából (literally “from the content of the preceding parts”)

See also

• before
• previous
• prior
• yesteryear

Anagrams

• perviously, viperously