Vocabulary
Erstwhile
English and Urdu gloss, synonyms and antonyms, and example usage from our editorial sentence cache where available.
Urdu meaning
سابق، اس سے پہلے، پرانا، پرانے وقتوں کا
Example sentences (from Dawn)
Sentences are selected from stored editorial text where your search word appears. If none appear yet, run the admin sentence generator for fuller coverage.
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The Rohilla was captured from the battlefield as an eight-year-old boy when the uprising by his father Zabita Khan, an erstwhile army chief of ShahAlam, was crushed.
Dawn Editorials —
Eye for an eye
— 2026-02-24
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Now these erstwhile rivals are on the proverbial same page when it comes to Yemen, Sudan and crucially Somalia.Why is Somalia important?
Dawn Editorials —
Horns of a dilemma
— 2026-02-09
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Thus the erstwhile Department of War became the Department of Defence in 1947 to comply with the Charter`s prohibition, also indicating that from then on, force would only be used in defence even if anticipatory defence.
Dawn Editorials —
An opportunity for states
— 2026-01-17
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We also know where most of the unvaccinated children are: some 57pc of children in the erstwhile Fata agencies (now districts) and almost twothirds of children in Balochistan are not fully immunised.
Dawn Editorials —
People are eating less
— 2026-01-09
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The erstwhile government was shown the door following the protests.
Dawn Editorials —
Playing both sides
— 2025-12-04
Synonyms
former, old, past, one-time, sometime, as was, ex-, late, then; previous, prior,
Curator example
“the erstwhile president of the company”
More vocabulary to explore
About this vocabulary section.
These entries support close reading of Dawn editorials and opinion pieces: short definitions,
Urdu equivalents where we have them, word relations, and—when generated—real lines from the editorial archive
so you can see tone and usage.
Common questions
- Do I need to sign up to use this vocabulary page?
- No. Word pages are open to everyone. You can read meanings in English and Urdu, synonyms and antonyms, and example sentences without creating an account.
- Where do the example sentences come from?
- When available, example sentences are drawn from cached matches in our Dawn editorial corpus so you can see how a word is used in real newsroom-style prose.
- How is this different from a dictionary?
- This section is curated for students preparing for competitive exams and editorial reading. Entries are compact, often include Urdu glosses, and are paired with in-context lines from editorials when we have them.
