subsequently
- 01 C1 Advanced
happening as a result of something else.
occurring as a logical consequence or deduction from a prior premise. This sense emphasizes the causal link rather than just the passage of time.
Simple“The evidence was found to be fake, and the case was subsequently dropped.”
In context“The witness was unable to confirm the suspect's identity; subsequently, the prosecution was forced to reconsider its strategy.”
UsageIn this sense, it functions similarly to 'therefore' or 'as a result'.
Teacher's tipThis sense is less common than the purely chronological one; advise students to use 'consequently' if they want to be 100% clear about a cause-and-effect relationship.
Synonyms
Usage subsequently describe · subsequently develop · subsequently present
“The clothes she was wearing were obtained in 1991 by the journalist Martin Bashir, who was working on a possible BBC documentary about the case, but were subsequently lost.”
“In 1991, the BBC journalist Martin Bashir obtained the clothes that Karen Hadaway was wearing when she was murdered, only for the clothes to subsequently go missing.”
From subsequent + -ly.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.