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former

[fawr-mer]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

preceding in time; prior or earlier: during a former stage in the proceedings.

past, long past, or ancient: in former times.

preceding in order; being the first of two: Our former manufacturing process was too costly.

being the first mentioned of two (distinguished from latter): The former suggestion was preferred to the latter.

having once, or previously, been; erstwhile: a former president.

Origin:
1125–75; Middle English, equivalent to forme (Old English forma first) + -er -er⁴. Compare foremost

Synonyms
3. foregoing, antecedent. 5. past, ex-.

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Former is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Example Sentences

Officers broke up a clash between pro- and anti-Mubarak demonstrators outside the building where the former president is on trial.

Former football player committed to promoting all sports.

Words from our former senior editor for photography.

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Officers broke up a clash between pro- and anti-Mubarak demonstrators outside the building where the former president is on trial.

Former football player committed to promoting all sports.

Words from our former senior editor for photography.

How the latter can tell us more about our origins than the former.

Former students play catch up with their former teachers and professors.

Maunu's attention turned to a small former horse shed near the pool, which until then had seemed best suited for storage.

Mercora, a startup led by a former antivirus software executive, is launching a music site with elements of peer-to-peer trading.

They have often threatened to retaliate in the past when former junta leaders faced prosecution.

Our majestic national bird is flying high over much of its former range and may soon be off the endangered list.

Former skeptics develop an alternative hybrid system.

Photographs and other historical records testify to the former abundance of the sea.

The small children's room's former window would become the new front door.

Last month, iRobot announced it would start marketing its former foe's machines as its own.

The former patent powerhouse works on new therapies.

The new space has the same bones, but more function and style than in its former life.

The former might abandon its young, while the latter is much less likely to do so.

Fitzpatrick tells me that the upstairs of her former building was once a house of ill repute.

Former bordello now has four rooms with private baths, and a bakery that turns out scones and muffins.

Bush as the former president embarks on a book tour.

The complaint, brought by a former student, accuses.

It is suspected he can dish the dirt on other former police chiefs.

Former drug and alcohol users can show impressive results without professional treatment, through the phenomenon of self-change.

Tourists are flocking to the city, but a former resident explains how the legacy of apartheid lingers.

I've been asked to review for a grant scheme that a former student applied for, with my detailled hand-holding.

Two of his former employees are also charged with murder.

The region's former strength-the ability of its state.

Transgenic trees and plants may break down the pollutants left behind at sites ranging from former factories to firing ranges.

Prisoners and local volunteers set out to build the religious center in the former exercise yards of cellblock seven.

The former nondescript front yard was dominated by an asphalt driveway gravel parking area and large trees.

Her former colleagues in academia didn't care much for her focus on warfare, especially insurgencies.

Constantine had borrowed the work of two former students and a former colleague.

The former prime minister on his trial, how his sister could win the upcoming elections and when he will end his exile.

The guide told us interesting stories about those buried there-many of them former exiles.

And generously, the first player might initiate renewed cooperation, with a view to enticing the former cheater to reciprocate.

The genus has undergone much revision by botanists, and some of its former members are now known by other.

Imagine catching wave after wave on an island peopled by former headhunters.

First to look at a map whenever he had a question about waging the former and sustaining the latter.

The former mobster making the claims has said the mobsters made millions of dollars illegally dumping the waste.

It has recently been restored to its former glory and features top-rated performances.

The enclosed former driveway hosts a dining area that opens onto the kitchen and rear garden.

After about an hour, the men finally manage to weld a pipe supplying water onto the stub of the former air-vent valve.

In its former life, it was an industrial light fixture.

It will feature a colorful cast of characters that the former rock guitarist now knows by name.

Banished from their homes and shunned by their families, these former witches must live out the rest of their days in exile.

Or, if you can't wait a moment longer to get rid of that former treasure, donate it online via.

These riders, ready to die for their new lord, vanquished enemies and unified former rivals under a single banner as never before.

The space looks larger than it did in its former life.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a person or thing that forms or serves to form.

a pupil in a particular form or grade, especially in a British secondary school: fifth formers.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English fourmer. See form, -er¹

Link To former

Collins

World English Dictionary

former¹ (ˈfɔːmə)

—*adj*
1.	belonging to or occurring in an earlier time: former glory
2.	having been at a previous time: a former colleague
3.	denoting the first or first mentioned of two: in the former case
4.	near the beginning

—n
5.	the former the first or first mentioned of two: distinguished from latter

former² (ˈfɔːmə)

—n
1.	a person or thing that forms or shapes
2.	electrical engineering a tool for giving a coil or winding the required shape, sometimes consisting of a frame on which the wire can be wound, the frame then being removed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

former

"earlier in time," c.1160, comparative of forme "first," patterned on formest "foremost" (see foremost). An unusual case of a comparative formed from a superlative (the -m- is a superlative element; the word was formed on the analogy of foremost).

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