as in former
having been such at some previous time
a quondam oil baron now living comfortably in retirement
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Recent Examples of quondam
By coincidence, the same day that Reichstag burned, Einstein wrote to his quondam mistress, Margarete Lenbach.
—
Thomas Levenson, The Atlantic, 9 June 2017
Thomas Levenson, The Atlantic, 9 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for quondam
Adjective
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Parente, a former federal prosecutor, has often described the incident leading up to the shooting as nothing more than a minor car accident.—
Omar Jimenez,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
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He was appointed interim commissioner in August following the retirement of former Commissioner Alan McClain.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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For one, Chicago is getting numb to seeing its erstwhile heroes in another city’s colors by now.—
Mark Lazerus,
New York Times,
31 Oct. 2025
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With a gun to the head of the Libyan ambassador, Tara bypasses her erstwhile father-figure Whelan to speak to Taverner, demanding £100 million in a Cayman Islands account and safe escort out of the country.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The Chinese retailer, known for its range of cheap ultra-fast-fashion clothing and criticisms of its labor and environmental practices, is nestled on the sixth floor of a more than century-old building in Paris, a city famous for high-end fashion and a recent green push.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
7 Nov. 2025
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In contexts not concerning the elite private colleges of New England and their decades-old conflicts and syllabi and on-campus squabbles, this mode of prestige media procedure matters absolutely and enormously, at scales difficult to tabulate.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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The research team underlined that the future work will explore other co-intercalants and optimize electrolytes for even wider temperature ranges.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Nov. 2025
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That’s a significant contrast to other parts of the Forbidden City, marked by wide open spaces intended to represent the grandeur of imperial power and territory.—
Fred He,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Quondam.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/quondam. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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