ahead of

preposition

1

: in front or advance of

2

: in excess of

Synonyms

• afore [chiefly dialect]
• before
• ere
• fore [chiefly dialect]
• 'fore
• of
• previous to
• prior to
• to

Examples of ahead of in a Sentence

She got ahead of me.

They went on ahead of us and by now are several miles ahead of us.

We have some hard work ahead of us.

The polls show that he is ahead of the other candidates.

The company is working hard to stay one step ahead of the competition.

They were trailing us by 5 points earlier in the game, but now they're ahead of us by 7.

Recent Examples on the Web

Hundreds of thousands of mourners have already lined up to pay their respects and bid farewell to Pope Francis ahead of the funeral on Saturday morning, April 26. —Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA Today, 27 Apr. 2025

Five quarterbacks were chosen ahead of him over the draft’s first three rounds. —Jayna Bardahl, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2025

That and other factors seemingly contributed to chatter that Sanders' stock was dropping ahead of the draft. —Chantz Martin, FOXNews.com, 26 Apr. 2025

On Friday, April 25, the Unstoppable actress, 55, posted a series of photos showing off her impressive style ahead of the weekend. —Angel Saunders, People.com, 26 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1613, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ahead of

• above
• foxglove
• hereof
• thereof
• whereof
• dove
• glove
• love
• shove
• hereinabove

Kids Definition

ahead of

preposition

: in or at a place or time before

got ahead of me

we're ahead of schedule