hitherto
- adverb
- /ˈhɪðərˌtu/
- Archaic
- I have hitherto avoided discussing this topic, but now I feel ready to share my thoughts.
- hitherto unknown
- hitherto unexplored
- hitherto neglected
So, he says, the sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little.
- So, he says, the sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little.
- Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideas will serve us as hitherto.
Examples
-
The parasite is much more widely distributed than hitherto thought, spreading west with a much higher prevalence than previously reported.
Academic text (2012) -
We believed conditions on board would be better than those we had hitherto experienced, but we were certainly disappointed.
Academic text (1993) -
Things that hitherto had not been looked at in that way.
-
In short, they need more opportunities to rise than have hitherto been given to members of their race.
Academic text (1992) -
I am discovering parts of myself hitherto unknown.
-
What if we have a hitherto unknown breach in security?
Fiction book (1998) -
It will now be my duty in this part of my history to tell what has hitherto remained untold.
-
We analyzed another important strand of tobacco industry-funded research not hitherto described: the relationship between stress and illness.
Academic text (2011) -
Yet it is also a discussion worth reopening since it has hitherto been marked by a conspicuous and notable omission.
Academic text (2017) -
In December 2009, a confidential report obtained by the Associated Press shed light on a hitherto unexplored dimension of Tehran's nuclear edifice.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
During the whole time from the start
Up to the present time
Up to the present time, often used when something has not happened
Before now, until the present moment
Before that time
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hitherto is made from hither and to, and hither means 'to here', so the word once meant 'to this place or time'. That's why hitherto means 'up to this time' or 'until now'.