yesterday
Americanadverb
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on the day preceding this day.
-
a short time ago.
Yesterday your money went further.
noun
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the day preceding this day.
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time in the immediate past.
adjective
noun
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the day immediately preceding today
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(often plural) the recent past
adverb
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on or during the day before today
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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:
Trump used the same law yesterday to put levies on trading partners over forced-labor concerns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Like I said yesterday, the scar will stay.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Views of just one of the wildfires ripping across Ontario, Canada yesterday.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
"There were many consultations yesterday and today. Of course, I hear what people are saying," Zelensky said in an evening address, adding that he had spoken with both Syrsky and Fedorov.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
I don’t feel angry at Theo the way I did when we were arguing yesterday.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
As he put it on stage about being 73, “there’s a lot more yesterdays, and more goodbyes.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
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
“We’re all in our twilight years; we have more yesterdays than tomorrows,” Davis said.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2021
It was not always easy to live down Brown’s yesterdays either.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2020
And here we were now opening the lid of a sealed jar, and all the anticipation of a tomorrow planned a thousand yesterdays ago came skittering to our feet like slick-shelled beetles.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
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.
