BEFORE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does before mean? 

• BEFORE (adverb)
  The adverb BEFORE has 2 senses:

1. earlier in time; previously

2. at or in the front

  Familiarity information: BEFORE used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEFORE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Earlier in time; previously

Synonyms:

before; earlier

Context example:

I mentioned that problem earlier

Sense 2

Meaning:

At or in the front

Synonyms:

ahead; before; in front

Context example:

with the cross of Jesus marching on before

 Context examples 

Treatment given as a first step to shrink a tumor before the main treatment, which is usually surgery, is given.

(Neoadjuvant therapy, NCI Dictionary)

The like had never been known before.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Before the routine vaccination program in the United States, mumps was a common illness in infants, children and young adults.

(Mumps, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Appearance of the neoplasms occurs over several weeks before receding over the course of several months if untreated.

(Multiple Self Healing Epithelioma of Ferguson-Smith, NCI Thesaurus)

“You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They happen in the first month of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows that she is pregnant.

(Neural Tube Defects, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

My left arm was numb, as though paralysed, and days passed before I could use it, while weeks went by before the last stiffness and pain went out of it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Incoming light passes through nerve-fibres and intermediary nerve cells of the neural retina, before encountering the light-sensitive rods and cones at the interface between neural retina and the pigmented retinal epithelium.

(Neural Retina, NCI Thesaurus)

Agents administered before, with, or after cancer therapy to reduce or prevent damage or toxicity to the kidney.

(Nephroprotective Agent, NCI Thesaurus)

So rapidly does the brain act that I believe I had thought this all out before Professor Moriarty had reached the bottom of the Reichenbach Fall.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)