Meaning & use

heretofore

adverb·Advanced

Last updated

Up until now; before this time.

See it in a sentence

The company had heretofore relied entirely on paper records.

This is a level of transparency heretofore unseen in the industry.

A note on using this word

Heretofore is largely confined to formal, legal, or archaic writing today, having been replaced by "until now" in everyday speech.

Words with a similar meaning

previouslyhitherto

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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