aft adj : (nautical, aeronautical) situated at or toward the stern or tail [syn: aft(a)] [ant: fore(a)] adv : at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane; "stow the luggage aft"; "ships with square sails sail fairly efficiently with the wind abaft"; "the captain looked astern to see what the fuss was about" [syn: abaft, astern] [ant: fore]

English

Etymology

AS. æftan behind; originally superlative of “of”, off. See After.

Pronunciation

IPA: WEAE /æft/

• Rhymes: -ɑːft

Adverb

aft

1. At, near, or towards the stern of a vessel (with the frame of reference within the vessel).

Synonyms

• abaft
• astern

Translations

• Finnish: perässä

Antonyms

• fore
• forward

See also

• after
• fore-and-aft
• aft = obsolete spelling of oft used by Robert Burns in his poem of 1786: "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley".

Dutch

Pronunciation

• ɑft

Meaning

rfc-header Meaning

aft

1. Aphtha: A sore in the mucous membrane of the mouth.

For the acronym, see AFT.

Aft, in naval terminology, is an adverb meaning 'towards the stern of the ship', when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?" Its antonym is forward, pronounced "forrard".

• The corresponding adjective, in distinguishing one feature of the vessel from another is after. See the caption to the right. Its antonym is forward.
• The corresponding preposition is abaft. For example, the mizzenmast is abaft the mainmast. Its antonym is before or, in a more clumsy form, forward of.

Aft, sometimes also describes the direction of a movement within an aircraft; that is, towards the tail. Example: "Let's go aft." It may also describe the back/tail location or region within an aircraft cabin. Example: "Aft cabin."

The difference of aft and stern is that aft is the inside (onboard) rearmost part of the vessel, while stern refers to outside (offboard) rearmost part of the vessel.

abaft, after, aftermost, astern, back, backward, baft, fore and aft, hind, hinder, hindermost, hindhand, hindmost, posterior, postern, rear, rearmost, rearward, retrograde, tail