Afterward or afterwards?
afterward is an adverb meaning “Alternative form of afterwards”; afterwards is an adverb meaning “At a later or succeeding time; after that”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) afterwards is about 3.9 times as common as afterward.
What is the difference between afterward and afterwards?
| afterward | afterwards | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | adverb |
| Meaning | USAlternative form of afterwards | At a later or succeeding time; after that |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɑːftə.wəd/ /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚd/ | /ˈɑːftə.wədz/ /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words | 26 times per million words |
Sources: afterward and afterwards in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of afterward and afterwards
afterward
- 1
USAlternative form of afterwards
afterwards
- 1
At a later or succeeding time; after that
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, afterward or afterwards?
afterward appears 6.8 times per million words; afterwards 26 times per million words.
afterward 6.8 times per million wordsafterwards 26 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search afterward vs afterwards?
“afterward vs afterwards” is searched about 1,000 times a month on Google and 100 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“afterwards vs afterward”, “afterward or afterwards”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.