hitherto
Americanadverb
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up to this time; until now.
a fact hitherto unknown.
-
to here.
adverb
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until this time
hitherto, there have been no problems
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archaic to this place or point
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hitherto
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English hiderto; see hither, to
Explanation
Use the adverb hitherto when you're describing a state or circumstance that existed up until now. If you find a hitherto undiscovered hidden tunnel in your cellar, you're the first to discover it. When some particular situation has existed so far, up until the moment that you're speaking of, you can use the word hitherto to talk about it. You could say that you're taking a hot air balloon ride that you were hitherto too scared to contemplate, or that a very shy girl in your philosophy class who was hitherto totally silent finally spoke up today and asked a very intelligent question.
Vocabulary lists containing hitherto
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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Sapiens
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 2
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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.
There was a freedom to their batting hitherto unseen in this series so far.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Artificial intelligence offers us the chance to understand humanity in ways hitherto beyond our reach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
In contrast, Britain's beleaguered leader Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be attending days after his hitherto loyal defence minister resigned over military spending.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
But Gulf Arab states and others believe Washington, hitherto their chief guarantor of security and deterrence, is in shaky hands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
The real blow came twelve years later, when, as a consequence of a radical taxonomic reshuffle, lepidopterists decided that Pappachi’s moth was in fact a separate species and genus hitherto unknown to science.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
