eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for before

5 headwords match “before”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; beforan ranks first.

  1. 1

    beforan

    score 19

    adverb

    before — before, in front of

    • opens the headword's definition
  2. 2

    æror

    score 12

    adverb

    before — before

    • opens the headword's definition
  3. 3

    foran

    score 12

    adverb

    before — before

    • opens the headword's definition
  4. 4

    ætforan

    score 12

    preposition

    before — before

    • opens the headword's definition
  5. 5

    ær þon þe

    score 12

    conjunction

    before — before

    • opens the headword's definition

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “before” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “before”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0