afterthought
Americannoun
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afterthoughts
plural
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a later or second thought; reconsideration.
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reflection after an act; an appropriate explanation, answer, expedient, or the like, conceived of too late for the occasion.
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something added, as a part or feature, that was not included in the original plan or design.
The vestry was added to the church as an afterthought.
noun
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a comment, reply, etc, that occurs to one after the opportunity to deliver it has passed
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an addition to something already completed
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of afterthought
Explanation
An afterthought is something you think of or add later. You might quickly wrap a gift and then stick a bow on it as an afterthought just before you hand it to the birthday boy. Sometimes calling something an afterthought is a bit of an insult — a movie reviewer might complain that female characters seem added on as afterthoughts, or a diner at a fancy restaurant could note that while the meat is well-cooked, the vegetables are nothing but an afterthought. This word has been used since the 1600s, a compound of after and thought.
Vocabulary lists containing afterthought
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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I Can Make This Promise
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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:
Historically, chicken was a bit of an afterthought in fast food.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Many now treat their nonalcoholic menus not as an afterthought but as another place to show creativity.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Over the next 18 months, memory went from an afterthought to one of the AI boom’s biggest bottlenecks.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Family structure should be a standard reporting category alongside race, poverty and disability—not an afterthought.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
This illustration spreads over two pages, and it appears to have been added as an afterthought as the book went through the press.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
So these are not just sort of weird random afterthoughts or vestiges.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
The viewer’s in for an unexpected twist, too, seeing as all of these characters but Rachel will soon be afterthoughts, tossed aside to maintain a constant laser focus on Marty’s hijinks.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025
While most teams have historically treated these set pieces as afterthoughts, Arsenal has turned them into a hack—and then turned that hack into its whole identity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2025
Following his death, some wondered if he had wound up in a rough-and-tumble league where skill and technique are afterthoughts.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
He ate hot eggs, warm bread, reveled in steaming tea, although the water from which the tea was made left an aftertaste in the mouth, afterthoughts in the brain: from what nearby bam?
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
