quondam

Q10U1O1N1D2A1M3
/ˈkwɒndəm/

adjective

Former; once; at one time.

RareScrabble 19

Meanings

adjectivequondam (not comparable)
  1. formalnot comparableFormer; once; at one time.

    This is the quondam King; Let's ſeize vpon him.

    c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 158, column 1
    4 more examples

    Present him if you please in my name to [John] Henry, [William] Grayson and all our quondam acquaintances and be assured that any civilities he receives from you will be gratefully remembered by me.

    1789, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to James Madison, 28 March, in The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections 1788–1790, vol. 1, ed. Merrill Jensen and Robert A. Becker, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976, page 217

    However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

    1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

    For the sleeper on the couch was not Akeley at all, but my quondam guide Noyes.

    1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 8, in The Whisperer in Darkness

    A few hundred pages after faintly praising me […] the book’s narrator (a quondam critic with nothing nice to say about Charlie Kaufman) challenges me to a barroom argument about cinema.

    2020 September 1, A. O. Scott, “‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ Review: Where to Begin?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

    Synonyms: erstwhile, antecedent, anterior, earlier, erstwhile, ex, foregone, former

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivebelonging to some prior time

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinquondam
  2. Englishquondam

Borrowed from Latin quondam. Compare whilom.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian бивш, някогашен
  • бивш (bivš)former
  • някогашен (njakogašen)former
Catalan quòndam
  • quòndamformer
German einstig, ehemalig
  • einstigformer
  • ehemaligformer
  • früherformer
  • einstmaligformer
Norwegian Bokmål forhenværende, tidligere
  • forhenværendeformer
  • tidligereformer
Russian бы́вший
  • бы́вший (bývšij)former
Spanish otrora, antaño
  • otroraformer
  • antañoformer
  • antiguoformer
Cite this entry
APA

quondam. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quondam

MLA

“quondam.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quondam. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quondam,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quondam.

Source: quondam on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.