Words / H / General

hitherto

adverb/ˌhɪðəˈtuː/

C2CEFR level
45/100Rarity: uncommon
FormalRegister

Until the present time, used to describe the state of knowledge before a new contribution.

The study documents a phenomenon that had hitherto received little scholarly attention.

Similar: previously, until now

Topic: Academic writing in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: Academic writing