Meaning & use
antebellum
Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.
See it in a sentence
The tour guide described life on an antebellum plantation before the Civil War began.
Many antebellum homes in the South feature tall white columns and wide porches.
A note on using this word
Antebellum comes from Latin and, in American English, almost always refers specifically to the years before the Civil War.
Words with a similar meaning
prewar
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
postbellum
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