as in former
having been such at some previous time
the once child star is now a lawyer in the entertainment industry
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in when
just at the moment that
you should have stopped wrestling once you knew someone was getting hurt, not five minutes later
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Recent Examples of once
Shawn Cole, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025
But catastrophes have a way of focusing attention on solutions that might once have been dismissed as fanciful or impossible.
—Margaret MacMillan, The Atlantic, 30 Apr. 2025
Demetrius Patterson, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
As the once leader of the industry, its woes rippled backward through the supply chain and forward into the airline industry which desperately needed new aircraft to meet the rising demand for post-pandemic travel.
—Jerrold Lundquist, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for once
Adverb
Companies once hired executives based on deep category experience and emotional investment in the brand.
—Shawn Cole, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025
But catastrophes have a way of focusing attention on solutions that might once have been dismissed as fanciful or impossible.
—Margaret MacMillan, The Atlantic, 30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
For Silver, there can no peace until the new school, and the resurgence of Cobra Kai headed by his once friend and now nemesis Kreese, gets some payback.
—Demetrius Patterson, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
As the once leader of the industry, its woes rippled backward through the supply chain and forward into the airline industry which desperately needed new aircraft to meet the rising demand for post-pandemic travel.
—Jerrold Lundquist, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for once
Recent Examples of Synonyms for once
Adverb
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Several videos of people keying Teslas have gone viral on social media platforms Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).—
Charles Singh,
USA Today,
24 Apr. 2025
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The new agreement will cover about 100 dishwashers, cooks, servers, bartenders and cleaners, as well as about 100 workers formerly employed by 1Fifty1 who cleaned public areas such as bathrooms, broke down and set up event spaces and performed groundskeeper services.—
Suhauna Hussain,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Under former President Joe Biden, monthly student loan bills resumed in the fall of 2023 after a years-long break.—
Zachary Schermele,
USA Today,
22 Apr. 2025
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For years, the scientific output (patents, publications, commercial innovations) from former Soviet scientists decreased dramatically with a long-lasting negative impact on today’s Russian economy.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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An older player was driving the younger ones and pretended to get lost in an isolated section of the county, where a group of accomplices emerged in masks and black clothing, imitating an abduction with at least one gun and one knife, according to the district attorney.—
Emily Mae Czachor,
CBS News,
1 May 2025
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The movie set, like all others, should have only had blanks on hand, but somehow a number of live rounds made their way to the location and one such bullet ended up in the gun that went off as Hutchins and Baldwin lined up a shot in an old church.—
Marco della Cava,
USA Today,
1 May 2025
Adjective
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Let your words be intentional and your thoughts be clear—especially when involving other people into your mental maze.—
Meghan Rose,
Glamour,
1 May 2025
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Sign up for the Goings On newsletter to receive their selections, and other cultural recommendations, in your inbox.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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That Horan yearns for the Fed to centrally plan an absurd creation of statist economists (GDP), prices, income, and employment more broadly is yet another disturbing lurch by an erstwhile free-market crowd that brevity disallows discussion of for now.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
20 Apr. 2025
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The team is also working on restoring the habitat across the island, which was stripped of all its vegetation during its time as an erstwhile guano mining spot.—
Tim Chester,
AFAR Media,
17 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Chinese exporters will not sit still while Washington negotiates, especially given the glacial pace of past talks.—
Zongyuan Zoe Liu,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Apr. 2025
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Performing tracks from past albums as well as a bulk of the songs from her Grammy-winning, Billboard 200-topping album Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé kicked off about three months of touring with her show at SoFi.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
29 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Kennedy’s close friend and sometime co-counsel Michael Tigar wrote in his own biography that Timothy later pointed a finger at Kennedy, calling him the mastermind, in order to seek revenge after their future falling-out.—
Susannah Cahalan,
Rolling Stone,
17 Apr. 2025
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They were taken away and brought back a week later with broken arms and legs, sometime heads.—
Ivana Kottasová,
CNN Money,
13 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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But China’s latest restrictions are more expansive, and there’s already some evidence that things could be different this time.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
24 Apr. 2025
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China's latest human spaceflight mission headed for orbit on Thursday morning (April 24).—
Andrew Jones,
Space.com,
24 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Once.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/once. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
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