yesterday
Americanadverb
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on the day preceding this day.
-
a short time ago.
Yesterday your money went further.
noun
-
yesterdays
plural
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the day preceding this day.
-
time in the immediate past.
adjective
noun
-
the day immediately preceding today
-
(often plural) the recent past
adverb
-
on or during the day before today
-
in the recent past
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of yesterday
before 950; Middle English; Old English geostran dæg. See yester-, day
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Until yesterday, this was the office of the College of Europe, the school of a united Europe," he said in the video -- his first public comments since the protests began.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
“But no,” Licht recalled in an interview, “I was told that e-commerce was a yesterday technology.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
The fashions are what the fashions are, and yet over and over it feels like, really, he could have written this yesterday.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
When I was watching on TV, I was like, ‘Holy ... he looks better today than he did yesterday, and he did pretty well the day before.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Your older brothers and sister and your nephews left Cuba suddenly, just yesterday.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
With both of us facing more yesterdays than tomorrows, I cop to midlife anxiety, feeling like time is running out for goals such as learning Spanish or how to swim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
More important may be simply having a reason to remember some of the yesterdays of a franchise that has 48 rich years of history.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2023
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death,” Browne said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 8, 2022
“We’re all in our twilight years; we have more yesterdays than tomorrows,” Davis said.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2021
“You had all weekend to do it. And yesterdays study group?”
From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
