antebellum

American  

[an-tee-bel-uhm] / ˈæn tiˈbɛl əm /

adjective

1. before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar.

   the antebellum plantations of Georgia.

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antebellum British  

/ ˌæntɪˈbɛləm /

adjective

1. of or during the period before a war, esp the American Civil War

   the antebellum South

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antebellum Cultural  

1. A descriptive term for objects and institutions, especially houses, that originated three or four decades before the Civil War. Antebellum is Latin for “before the war.”

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Etymology

Origin of antebellum

First recorded in 1860–65, antebellum is from Latin ante bellum “before the war”

Example Sentences

If analysts factor an increase of say $10 from the antebellum price of around $70 to just $80 this could lift target prices across the European oil majors by at least 15%.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026

He was the namesake of the boxer later known as Muhammad Ali, whose ancestors had been enslaved by the white Cassius’s cousin Henry Clay, the antebellum orator and senator.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 3, 2025

Specifically, Jackson asked the court to reckon with the views and work of free Black people in antebellum and post-antebellum America when considering the meaning and power of the 14th Amendment.

From Slate • Jul. 3, 2025

Slaveowner statesmen of the antebellum South, like John C. Calhoun and Alexander Stephens, were plainly terrified of the racial apocalypse they feared might come with abolition, let alone any version of legal equality.

From Salon • May 25, 2025

His environment had left its unlikable marks on him, but in the antebellum South, I could have found myself at the mercy of someone much worse—could have been descended from someone much worse.

From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler