thereafter
/ˌðɛɹˈæf.tɚ/adverb, noun
thereafter is spelled T-H-E-R-E-A-F-T-E-R. The wrong spelling people search most is therafter: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Thereafter is an adverb meaning “After that time, from then on; thenceforth”.
How do you spell thereafter?
Thereafter is spelled T-H-E-R-E-A-F-T-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 20 of the searches for thereafter in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
What does thereafter mean?
adverb
- 1
After that time, from then on; thenceforth.
Near-synonyms: afterward, afterwards
- 2
After that (the thing aforementioned).
The little dog was off like a shot, and the children went running thereafter.
noun
- 1
Synonym of hereafter (“future existence or state”).
- 2
Synonym of hereafter (“existence after death”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce thereafter?
- UK /ˌðɛəɹˈɑːf.tə(ɹ)/
- /ˌðɛəɹˈæf.tə(ɹ)/
- US /ˌðɛɹˈæf.tɚ/
Thereafter has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-thereafter.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of thereafter
- thereafters plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is thereafter?
Thereafter appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Thereafter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense after that:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | après quoi, à la suite de quoi, ensuite |
| German | danach, nachher, anschließend, später |
| Spanish | tras lo cual, tras lo que |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does thereafter come from?
From Middle English therafter, theraftir, þerefter, þerafter, þeræfter, from Old English þǣræfter (“after that; thereafter”), equivalent to there + after. Cognate with Saterland Frisian deerätter (“thereafter”), West Frisian dêrefter (“behind that; thereafter”), Dutch daarachter (“behind that; thereafter”), German Low German daarachter (“behind that”), Danish derefter (“thereafter”), Swedish därefter (“thereafter”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).