Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. At an earlier time; once.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- First; first of all; beforehand.
- In time past; at a certain point or through an indefinite period in the past; of old; here-to-fore.
- In time just past; just now; as aforesaid.
- Synonyms Once, anciently; Formerly, Previously. Formerly means before the present time, and perhaps a considerable time before; previously, before some particular event or time, and generally up to that point: as, the rates of postage were formerly much higher than now; they were reduced in 1845, having previously been at an average of about 12½ cents.
Wiktionary
- adv. at some time in the past
- adv. previously; once
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. In time past, either in time immediately preceding or at any indefinite distance; of old; heretofore.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. at a previous time
Etymologies
- former + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The term formerly most used to describe existing illegal Israeli "settlements" and their expansion was "natural growth".”
“Fisher can win the Dubai World Championship, but isn't guaranteed the title formerly called Order”
WN.com - Articles related to Israel, Hamas close to prisoner swap deal
“The label formerly known as Sony BMG is now officially owned by Sony Corp., according to confirmations issued Wednesday.”
“In a term formerly reserved for the Kurds of the northern Middle East, Peter Bergen has said that the Pashtuns are in fact the world's largest group of people without a state.”
Derek Flood: A Fallacy of Inheritance: Obama and the Missile Strike Policy
“Germany applied to Easter the same title formerly given to the season of the sacred king's love-death, Hoch-Zeit, "the High Time.”
“An old marquise made use of a term formerly in vogue at court to express the flowery beauty of the fops and beaux of the olden time, whose language and demeanor were social laws: she called him “the pink of fashion.””
“McGraw-Hill (2008) ¹ I am indebted to Virginia C. Eidenmuller for correcting the original misspelling of the French word formerly appearing in this transcript.”
Keynote Address at the TD Waterhouse Investment Advisor Conference
“The UN leader on Friday ended a 10-day personal trip to his native Ghana, where he had conferred on him a title formerly reserved only for the Ashanti king, making him one of the most senior and powerful traditional rulers in his home country.”
“At night she tossed about and wandered, and it became at length apparent that there was a settled attack, something like what they called formerly a "nervous fever.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘formerly’.
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
about, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already and 291 more...
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Formerly
Being a list of words with definitions containing the word "formerly."
formerly, armorer, link, plummet, brank, pall-mall, florin, quondam, erstwhile, imponderable, recant, ether and 32 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Adverbia
A long list of adverbs, beginning with full-drive. Someone had to list them. This list in continued in the list More Adverbia.
Read some sniping and some informative commentary about a...full-drive, portentously, unlawfully, legally, heterogeneously, consumingly, clancularly, inconsolably, prepositionally, retrogressively, symptomatically, decrepitly and 2460 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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VanishedOne's Words
facipulator, fetiphobia, gules, boustrophedon, reverse boustroph..., unreal, ensiform, xiphoid, romhack, heritage, floccinaucinihili..., johnian and 1004 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for formerly.
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