before

Less common meanings

6. 6
   up for judgmentpreposition

   Under the consideration, judgment, or authority of.

   The bill comes before Parliament next week.

   He was brought before the magistrate.

   UsageOften come before or be brought before a court or committee; use by for who decides (decided by the court).

   Note

   Courts and councils speak this way: a case is laid before a panel, and a suit is begun before an archdeacon, as John Ayliffe's canon-law treatise of 1726 puts it. The word names the forum where a matter is heard. Compared with the audience sense, the difference is power: an audience watches, but this one rules. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • John Ayliffe's canon-law treatise, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani, was first published in 1726. en.wikisource.org
   • Ayliffe's treatise uses before in describing a suit begun before an archdeacon. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   earlier photonouncountable

   The earlier state or version of something, especially the picture taken before a change in a before-and-after pair.

   Every diet advert needs a convincing before.

   Put the before beside the after, and you can hardly believe it's the same kitchen.

   UsageUsually paired with after: before-and-after pictures, the befores and the afters.

   Oppositeafter

   Note

   Before-and-after pictures made a noun of it, almost always paired with after: "the befores look better than the afters," a character complains in Mary Lutyens's novel Cleo (1973). As early as 1918, a double column of photographs set "the befores" on the left. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Mary Lutyens wrote Cleo, first published in 1973. openlibrary.org
   • A character in Cleo says that the befores look better than the afters; the speaker is Aunt G. en.wiktionary.org
   • A 1918 text describes a double column of photographs with the befores on the left. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   preposition

   Ranked higher than in importance or preference.

   Duty before pleasure was his motto.

   She has always put her children's needs before her own, even when money was tight.

   UsageOften put one thing before another, or one thing comes before another.

   Similarabove, over

   Note

   Ranking turns order into value: to put one thing before another is to rank it higher, which makes this the idiom of priorities, as in "market share and profit before quality." The King James Bible of 1611 has "preferred before me," where modern English would say preferred to. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikisource.org
   • The King James Bible contains the words “preferred before me.” en.wikisource.org
9. 9
   ahead in a listpreposition

   Earlier in a sequence or ordered list, such as alphabetical order or the order of words in a sentence.

   The adjective goes before the noun in English.

   In the class list, Garcia comes before Gupta because the names are sorted alphabetically.

   Oppositeafter

10. 10
    still to comepreposition

    In store for; in the future of.

    The hardest part of the climb was still before us.

    With the exams before her, she stopped going out.

    UsageUsually after lie or be: the journey that lay before them, your life is before you.

    Note

    A twist of the spatial picture: what is before you in space lies ahead, so here the word points to the future, while the time preposition points to what comes earlier. Dunsany plays on both directions in 1905: "an Eternity behind thee as well as one before." Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Dunsany's The Gods of Pegāna, containing the quotation, was first published in 1905. en.wikipedia.org
    • The quoted words occur exactly in Dunsany's text, contrasting past and future eternity; the fictional speaker is Yoharneth-Lahai, addressing Imbaun. en.wikisource.org
11. 11
    rather thanconjunctioncolloquial

    Rather or sooner than, used to express a refusal.

    He'd walk ten miles before he'd take a taxi.

    I'd sell the car before I'd sell the piano.

    UsageIn this sense, the clause after before can take will or would: I'll walk before I'll pay; I'd walk before I'd pay.

    Note

    Defiance dressed as sequence: I'll die before I tell puts dying first, so the telling never happens.

12. 12
    nounrarecountable

    What occurred or existed previously; the past.

    We talk about all the befores. The stupid things we did. The funny things. The times she made us laugh.

    2011, Mary E. Pearson, The Fox Inheritance

    Similarpast

    Oppositeafter

    Note

    The past turned into something you can count: poets pile it up in the phrase before all the befores to reach back past every beginning. Hugh Seidman uses it in 1982, and so does a 1995 translation of Maria Luisa Spaziani. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The phrase “before all the befores” occurs in poetry by Hugh Seidman and in an English translation of Maria Luisa Spaziani. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    adverbliterary

    In front or ahead, in position or in order of going (a herald went before).

    A herald went before to announce the king.

    The dog ran on before, and the rest of us followed slowly.

    Similarahead

    Oppositebehind

    Note

    Motion is the clue: things go, walk or run before, which is to say ahead, the way a herald precedes a king. Behind is its natural partner, as in "we walked behind while they went before." The same use can also mark a fixed place at the front, not only movement ahead.