FORMERLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does formerly mean? 

• FORMERLY (adverb)
  The adverb FORMERLY has 1 sense:

1. at a previous time

  Familiarity information: FORMERLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORMERLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

At a previous time

Synonyms:

at one time; erst; erstwhile; formerly; once

Context example:

she was a dancer once

 Context examples 

An aggressive Non-Hodgkin's adult lymphoma, formerly called angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia (AILD).

(Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy, NCI Thesaurus/PDQ)

It was formerly called hereditary flat adenoma syndrome (HFAS) but is now recognized as an attenuated variant of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP).

(Attenuated Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, NCI Thesaurus)

It was formerly used as parasiticide.

(Benzene, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

An aggressive immature hematologic neoplasm formerly known as blastic NK cell lymphoma, composed of cells with a lymphoblast-like morphology.

(Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm, NCI Thesaurus)

AHRQ was formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR).

(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, NCI Thesaurus)

I had formerly been surgeon of another ship where he was master, and a fourth part owner, in a voyage to the Levant.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He said, almost in the same words as formerly, that Ham was just the same, “wearing away his life with kiender no care nohow for 't; but never murmuring, and liked by all”.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade in Meryton, where he had made a tolerable fortune, and risen to the honour of knighthood by an address to the king during his mayoralty.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.

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

C. rectus, formerly known as Wolinella recta, is a periodontal pathogen causing chronic periodontitis and extraoral abscesses and has been associated with causing intrauterine fetal growth retardation.

(Campylobacter rectus, NCI Thesaurus)