Afterward or afterword?
afterward is an adverb meaning “Alternative form of afterwards”; afterword is a noun meaning “an epilogue”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) afterward is about 27 times as common as afterword.
What is the difference between afterward and afterword?
| afterward | afterword | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | noun |
| Meaning | USAlternative form of afterwards | an epilogue a postscript |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | none | afterwords |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɑːftə.wəd/ /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚd/ | /ˈɑːf.tə.wɜːd/ /ˈæf.tɚˌwɝd/ |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words | about once in every 4 million words |
Sources: afterward and afterword 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 afterword
afterward
- 1
USAlternative form of afterwards
afterword
- 1
an epilogue
- 2
a postscript
- 3
an appendix
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 afterword?
afterward appears 6.8 times per million words; afterword about once in every 4 million words.
afterward 6.8 times per million wordsafterword about once in every 4 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 afterword?
“afterward vs afterword” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“afterword vs afterward”, “afterward or afterword”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.