Skip to content
Allin

later

adverbadjectiveinterjectiontop 1 000 in film dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈleɪ.tə//
  • United States//ˈleɪ.tɚ//
  • United States/[ˈleɪ̯.ɾɚ]/

Afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).

adverb

  1. 1

    Afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).

    My roommate arrived first. I arrived later.

    I arrived later than my roommate.

  2. 2

    At some unspecified time in the future.

    I wanted to do it now, but I’ll have to do it later.

  3. 3

    What if (something problematic or unanticipated happens); if not (something undesirable will happen).

    Compare Malay nanti (“later; if not”)

    Later you fall asleep how?

  4. 4

    Also a form of latecomparative form of late: more late

    You came in late yesterday and today you came in even later.

Etymology

* Adverb: From Middle English later, latere, from Old English lator, equivalent to late + -er. * Adjective: From Middle English later, latere, from Old English lætra, equivalent to late + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian leeter (“later”), West Frisian letter (“later”), Dutch later (“later”), German Low German later (“later”).

adjective

  1. 1

    Coming afterward in time (used with than when comparing with another time).

    The Victorian era is a later period of English history than the Elizabethan era.

    The eldest son was usually given the name of his paternal grandfather, later children those of other relatives.

  2. 2

    Coming afterward in distance (following an antecedent distance as embedded within an adverbial phrase)

    I felt some leg pain during the first mile of my run and I strained my calf two miles later.

  3. 3

    At some time in the future.

    The meeting was adjourned to a later date.

  4. 4

    Also a form of latecomparative form of late: more late

    Jim was later than John.

interjection

  1. 1

    slangSee you later; goodbye.

    Later, dude.

The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).