Dictionary

afterlife en · NOUN

Pronunciation

(Southern-England) audio
/ˈæftɚˌlaɪf/ (General-American)
/ˈɑːftəˌlaɪf/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From after- + life.

Meanings

A conscious existence after death; a supernatural life that follows one's natural life, in some worldviews.
- Each person took this paper money and dropped it into a huge tin drum which held within it a fierce fire, a bonfire of heavenly money for Tiger’s afterlife. 2005, Tash Aw, chapter 6, in The Harmony Silk Factory, New York: Riverhead Books, page 67:
- 1715, Alexander Pope, The Temple of Fame, London: Bernard Lintott, Note to p. 16, ver. 5, Those heroick Barbarians accounted it a Dishonour to die in their Beds, and rush’d on to certain Death in the Prospect of an After-Life […]
- Many religious people believe in an afterlife.
- 1891, Ambrose Bierce, “A Watcher by the Dead” in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, San Francisco: E.L.G. Steele, p. 175, I, who have not a shade of superstition in my nature—I, who have no belief in immortality—I, who know […] that the after-life is the dream of a desire
- Read in euery Starre, and let the Moone be your Candle to doe it, the prouident disposition of God, the eternitie of your after-life. 1614, Thomas Adams, “The Sinners Passing-Bell”, in The Devills Banket, London: Ralph Mab, page 219:
The place believed to be inhabited by people who have died.
- You'll reunite later, somewhere in the afterlife.
- There were human cultures that taught an afterlife of the blessed on mountaintops or in clouds, in caverns or oases, but she could not recall any in which if you were very, very good when you died you went to the beach. 1985, Carl Sagan, chapter 20, in Contact, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 361:
- He wanted to offer a little reminder that the world is cruel and pointless, all human endeavour ultimately meaningless, and no advancement in this world worth making besides gaining God’s favour and an entry ticket into the better half of the afterlife. 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 434:
(countable, informal, uncountable) The part of a person's life that follows a particular stage or event; later life.
- These trembling children have at least this consolation—that never, in their after lives, no, not when poison-gas blinds and chokes them, not when their wives betray them, not when men scorn them and spit upon them, will they know again such terror, despair and loneliness as in the happy carefree schooldays of their youth. 1937, Hugh Walpole, John Cornelius: His Life and Adventures, London: Macmillan, Part 2, Chapter 1:
- In early youth, not only love, but friendship, at first sight, grows out of an ill-directed sensibility; and in after-life, women under the powerful influence of this temper […] are too readily inclined to select for their confidential connections, flexible and flattering companions […] 1799, Hannah More, chapter 15, in Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, volume 2, London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, page 103:
- They say that life begins at 40, but right now I'm more interested in the afterlife that begins at 65!
- […] the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, are transient. 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 1, in My Bondage and My Freedom, New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, page 40:
- And all the colour of my afterlife / Will be the shadow of today. 1833, Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems, London: Moxon, page 55:
- Mary’s body was a battleground from the beginning. Who was she before the angel called? Why was she chosen, why not some other good girl? Did she suffer pain in childbirth? What was her afterlife? Did she have more children? 2009, Hilary Mantel, “Marian Devotion”, in Mantel Pieces, London: 4th Estate, published 2020:
- Those Favorites as it is their first care, to hold up themselves in that height of grace, so alwayes make it their second endeavour to raise Estates, to get Offices and governments, that if they doe remove from that height of favour, yet they may still retaine some happy monument of their former power, and a stay to their after-life. 1631, John Barclay, chapter 13, in The Mirrour of Mindes, London: Thomas Walkley, page 120:
The effects of a person's actions, or their reputation, after death.
- 1662, Margaret Cavendish, The Several Wits, Scene 34, in Playes, London: John Martyn et al., p. 111, […] poor poverty and birth, can be no hindrance to natural wit, for natural wit, in a poor Cottage, may spin an after-life, enter-weaving several colour’d fancies, and threeds of opinions, making fine and curious Tapestries to hang in the Chambers of fame,
- Let every Man who votes consider, That he is now going to give away that, for which the Soldier gave up his Rest, his Pleasure, and his Life; the Scholar resign’d his whole Series of Thought, his Midnight Repose, and his Morning Slumbers. In a Word, he is (as I may say) to be Judge of that After-Life, which noble Spirits prefer to their very real Beings. 1709, Richard Steele, “The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.”, in The Tatler, number 74, London, published 1712, page 162:
- The philanthropic endowment that she bequeathed gave her an ongoing afterlife.
The events or situations that result from a particular event; the later reception, consumption or reworking of something, especially a cultural production such as a film, book, etc.
- Even in its eighties habitat, Phil Collins’s signature style was rarely mistaken for hip, but his hits have definitely taken on a robust afterlife. 2019 October 7, “Nightlife”, in The New Yorker, page 6:
- Europe in the Twenties and especially the Thirties entered a twilight zone between the afterlife of one war and the looming anticipation of another. 2005, Tony Judt, Postwar, New York: Penguin, Introduction, p. 4:
- The 1970s TV show M*A*S*H had a long afterlife in syndication.
- 1969, Harry Zohn (translator), “The Task of the Translator” in Illuminations by Walter Benjamin, New York: Schocken Books, p. 71, The history of the great works of art tells us about their antecedents, their realization in the age of the artist, their potentially eternal afterlife in succeeding generations.

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
afterlifes	Number=Plur	proscribed, rare	lexicographic
afterlives	Number=Plur		lexicographic

Translations (102)

pt outro mundo (a conscious existence after death) · cmn 來世 /来世 (a conscious existence after death) · cs posmrtný život (a conscious existence after death) · pl życie pozagrobowe (a conscious existence after death) · cy y byd arall (a conscious existence after death) · ar آخِرَة (a conscious existence after death) · fi tuonpuoleinen (a conscious existence after death) · uk життя́ після сме́рті (a conscious existence after death) · pt submundo (a conscious existence after death) · es ultravida (a conscious existence after death) · ro viața de dincolo (a conscious existence after death) · cs onen svět (a conscious existence after death) · fr au-delà (a conscious existence after death) · ro lumea de apoi (a conscious existence after death) · ca ultratomba (a conscious existence after death) · es lo de allá (a conscious existence after death) · nl onderwereld (a conscious existence after death) · fr vie après la mort (a conscious existence after death) · bn না ফেরার দেশ (a conscious existence after death) · ba әхирәт (a conscious existence after death) · mn хойд нас (a conscious existence after death) · cmn 來生 /来生 (a conscious existence after death) · tr öbür dünya (a conscious existence after death) · fr autre monde (a conscious existence after death) · ajp آخرة (a conscious existence after death) · vi kiếp sau (a conscious existence after death) · ka საიქიო (a conscious existence after death) · tr öteki dünya (a conscious existence after death) · cy y byd a ddaw (a conscious existence after death) · ru жизнь после сме́рти (a conscious existence after death) · eo transtombo (a conscious existence after death) · fr arrière-monde (a conscious existence after death) · gl alén (a conscious existence after death) · mk задгробен живот (a conscious existence after death) · vi thế giới bên kia (a conscious existence after death) · ru загро́бная жизнь (a conscious existence after death) · uk пото́йсвіт (a conscious existence after death) · es orco (a conscious existence after death) · kk о дүниелік өмір (a conscious existence after death) · es trasmundo (a conscious existence after death) · hit 𒋼𒂊𒈾𒌋𒉿𒀸 (a conscious existence after death) · pt além (a conscious existence after death) · ko 후세 (a conscious existence after death) · de Leben nach dem Tod (a conscious existence after death) · id akhirat (a conscious existence after death) · fi kuolemanjälkeinen elämä (a conscious existence after death) · pt ultravida (a conscious existence after death) · cmn 後世 /后世 (a conscious existence after death) · de Unterwelt (a conscious existence after death) · es inframundo (a conscious existence after death) · uk за́світи (a conscious existence after death) · ko 저승 (a conscious existence after death) · mt wara l-mewt (a conscious existence after death) · mn ᠬᠣᠶᠢᠳᠤ ᠨᠠᠰᠤ (a conscious existence after death) · es submundo (a conscious existence after death) · ro viața de apoi (a conscious existence after death) · kmr axret (a conscious existence after death) · de Jenseits (a conscious existence after death) · it oltretomba (a conscious existence after death) · es otro mundo (a conscious existence after death) · uk потойбі́ччя (a conscious existence after death) · ru загро́бный мир (a conscious existence after death) · az axirət (a conscious existence after death) · ro viața de după moarte (a conscious existence after death) · mt wara l-ħajja (a conscious existence after death) · ca inframón (a conscious existence after death) · tl kabilang daigdig (a conscious existence after death) · eo postmorto (a conscious existence after death) · sv livet efter detta (a conscious existence after death) · bn আখিরাত (a conscious existence after death) · pt vida após a morte (a conscious existence after death) · sw ahera (a conscious existence after death) · tr ahiret (a conscious existence after death) · ca més enllà (a conscious existence after death) · hu túlvilág (a conscious existence after death) · sv livet efter döden (a conscious existence after death) · ko 내세 (a conscious existence after death) · mi anamata (a conscious existence after death) · es acullá (a conscious existence after death) · ja 後世 (a conscious existence after death) · it aldilà (a conscious existence after death) · ja 来世 (a conscious existence after death) · cy y byd nesaf (a conscious existence after death) · ga an saol eile (a conscious existence after death) · es ultratumba (a conscious existence after death) · nl hiernamaals (a conscious existence after death) · pt além-túmulo (a conscious existence after death) · da livet efter døden (a conscious existence after death) · nl leven na de dood (a conscious existence after death) · sv efterliv (a conscious existence after death) · tr diğer taraf (a conscious existence after death) · ru потусторо́нний мир (a conscious existence after death) · es más allá (a conscious existence after death) · pl zaświaty (a conscious existence after death) · ro lumea cealaltă (a conscious existence after death) · uk потойбі́чне життя́ (a conscious existence after death) · fr outre-tombe (a conscious existence after death) · tl kabilang buhay (a conscious existence after death) · el μετά θάνατον ζωή (a conscious existence after death) · ms alam baqa (a conscious existence after death) · es transmundo (a conscious existence after death) · la orcus (a conscious existence after death)

afterlife en · NOUN

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Translations (102)