How to Use hitherto in a Sentence

hitherto

adverb
  • The scan probed hitherto unseen wounds in the back, shoulder blade and rib cage.
    Christian Als, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
  • And that’s why the non-unicorns out there might just be the best bet to take your team to hitherto unimagined heights.
    Mark C. Perna, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Mr Xi has amassed enough clout to push through reforms that have hitherto proved tricky.
    The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • In just 12 months, this hitherto unknown app has become one of the go-to places for shoppers who want to get the most bang for their buck.
    Molly Peck, Journal Sentinel, 2 Sep. 2023
  • No class appears to be stirred so deeply as the great middle class, the real strength of the country and the hitherto solid prop of the monarchy.
    Chicago Tribune, 7 June 2023
  • In the pivotal Game 5, the Yankees socked their hitherto nemesis for four runs in 4 2/3 innings.
    Brian Costa, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2017
  • Bella is back in London and is to marry Max, and her ex-husband Alfie, hitherto unknown, turns up at the wedding to claim her.
    Tony McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2024
  • And while Johnson has hitherto been happy to tear up the norms of British political life, this is a tradition that will suit him very well.
    Matt Wells, CNN, 28 Aug. 2019
  • In terms of story, the new season aims for a larger narrative scope hitherto unseen in previous outings of the show.
    Josh Weiss, Forbes, 1 June 2022
  • Trump, his allies, and his kin are guilty of degrading the language of government and politics to a hitherto unplumbed low.
    Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 5 June 2018
  • The camera, hitherto so calm, picks up speed, travelling beside him down the avenue, under falling snow.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2017
  • Their food, hitherto held in high esteem, plunged in prestige in direct proportion to the influx of immigrants.
    Joshua David Stein, Town & Country, 13 July 2017
  • The lack of clarity over who, if anybody, will win and lose in the new pension system has opened a door for Mr. Macron’s hitherto weak political opposition and for the unions.
    Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 9 Dec. 2019
  • New neural pathways, like lights on a grid, all switched on at once, an entire ecosystem, hitherto unknown, there to be discovered and ridden.
    Abigail Rasminsky, Longreads, 8 Jan. 2018
  • Some believe Smenkhkare may have been a brother to Tutankhamen or a hitherto unknown co-regent with Akhenaten.
    Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Tacón, however, might think differently as this weekend is the start of a whole new chapter in their hitherto very short history.
    SI.com, 6 Sep. 2019
  • The stars also hold the film steady and emotionally credible when a hitherto sturdy screenplay, by the novice directors, makes some wild, wayward plotting moves in the home stretch.
    Guy Lodge, Variety, 21 Feb. 2023
  • By 1985, in one of the crueler ironies of the century, gay men had learned that the liberation of the libido, the casting-off of eons-old shame, had exposed them to an implacable, hitherto unknown virus.
    Michael Cunningham, New York Times, 25 June 2018
  • But more plantations are springing up while Kampot quality is rated as high as ever and hitherto slack markets, like the United States, are getting hooked on the spice.
    Denis D. Gray, The Denver Post, 31 Jan. 2017
  • With the Italian's hitherto unerring spirit cracked, Jairzinho finished them off with a far less exquisite bumbling finish off his knee, after Pele knocked down a route one lob into the box.
    SI.com, 1 Apr. 2018
  • Maybe a hitherto brutal dictator is looking for the survival strategy that Mr. Trump has offered.
    Tony Abbott, WSJ, 13 July 2018
  • That troubling scene gives way to one set in an office, where, having prevailed over a man to win her job, the hitherto-sympathetic Marlene seems to be emulating some of the worst aspects of male behavior.
    Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Apr. 2018
  • There appears to be an acrostic that has been hitherto unremarked upon and that is so resonant with its location in the text as to be very likely deliberate.
    BostonGlobe.com, 6 Nov. 2019
  • Yet his behaviour has created an appearance of conflict, which was hitherto a sackable offence, and has not escaped the notice of foreign spies.
    The Economist, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Friday's historic encounter between North and South Korea gave a world leader who has hitherto shunned the foreign media more camera time than ever before.
    Jamie Tarabay, CNN, 27 Apr. 2018
  • Subscribers are learning to embrace these hitherto-unseen models of entertainment from the comfort of their homes, consuming hours of content in one to two sittings.
    Isaac Feldberg, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2019
  • With the West alerted to a crisis that had hitherto received little attention, the United States was among several nations to send troops and military experts to help find the missing students.
    Alexander Smith, NBC News, 8 May 2017
  • There was no indication of any trouble or problems hitherto.
    SI.com, 25 Apr. 2018
  • So thank you, fall, because if this season's runways are any indication, color is everywhere: yellows, reds, pastels—and a whole bunch of hitherto unheard-of shades.
    Lisa Armstrong, Harper's BAZAAR, 3 June 2015
  • That is, until he's had enough of being bullied and snaps, discovering a hitherto unknown talent for sacking quarterbacks.
    Ilana Gordon, EW.com, 9 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hitherto.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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