as in yet
up to this or that time
at the talent show Kyle revealed his hitherto unknown gift for doing impressions
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Recent Examples of hitherto
Many of China’s hitherto top names in AI—including ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, Xiaomi cofounder Lin Bin, and Alibaba CTO Wang Jian—cut their teeth at the Microsoft Research Asia (MRSA) lab in Beijing.
—
Charlie Campbell, Time, 27 Jan. 2026
Maybe this reveals some sort of hitherto undiagnosed neurodivergence, but asymmetric designs like this annoy me.
—Nick Miller, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
The reviews were not so much glowing as incandescent; queues for concerts, hitherto often modest, now stretched around the block.
—Literary Hub, 15 Jan. 2026
Leveraging Personal Experience There were some common threads, perhaps the most obvious being the ability of the founders to identify hitherto untapped demand.
—Trevor Clawson, Forbes.com, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hitherto
Charlie Campbell, Time, 27 Jan. 2026
Maybe this reveals some sort of hitherto undiagnosed neurodivergence, but asymmetric designs like this annoy me.
—Nick Miller, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2026
The reviews were not so much glowing as incandescent; queues for concerts, hitherto often modest, now stretched around the block.
—Literary Hub, 15 Jan. 2026
Leveraging Personal Experience There were some common threads, perhaps the most obvious being the ability of the founders to identify hitherto untapped demand.
—Trevor Clawson, Forbes.com, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hitherto
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hitherto
Adverb
-
Putting words on the page seems too low stakes to get worked up about, and yet the terror of saying something taboo—or just being boring—feels like a terrible fate to most writers.—
David O’Neill,
New Yorker,
20 May 2026
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Authorities have not yet determined what caused the incident, but early reports suggest the hovercraft may have become unstable after moving onto thin ice near the shoreline.—
Jessica Mekles,
FOXNews.com,
20 May 2026
Adverb
-
Whether the Michael sequel will come to fruition and cover any of this uncharted territory—or flash back to territory that was avoided in the first film, like the entirety of The Wiz—is heretofore unknown.—
Chris Murphy,
Vanity Fair,
12 May 2026
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Hearing a heretofore unseen character dismiss the studied, experienced perspective of our lead investigator is enough to turn your stomach.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hitherto.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hitherto. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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