afterward
adv.at a later time or after something else has happened. You use it to talk about what you did next.
adv.at a later or subsequent time. Often used to link two events in a chronological sequence.
“We went for a walk and had dinner afterward.”
“The team played a difficult match and went out for a celebratory meal afterward.”
“The witness provided a brief statement immediately following the accident, but she struggled to recall specific details when questioned again shortly afterward.”
Typically placed at the end of a clause or sentence to indicate a subsequent action.
Afterward is an adverb and cannot take a noun object; use the preposition 'after' instead.
Inherited from Middle English afterward, from Old English æfterweard; equivalent to after + -ward.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.