Your English writing platform
Discover LudwigSuggestions(5)
The phrase "an erstwhile" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to describe someone or something that was formerly in a particular role or state but is no longer so.
Example: "He is an erstwhile champion, having held the title several years ago before retiring."
Alternatives: "a former" or "a previous".
Exact(59)
It was the loss of reputation for an erstwhile genius.
Now 'ABD' and married, I bounced around the country with my first husband, an erstwhile academic.
For all Mr. Hill's celebrity as an erstwhile criminal, he was never entirely rehabilitated.
Thornburgh has followed an erstwhile lover who plans on carving a utopian society from the wilderness.
Jay Strauss, an erstwhile photographer who owns the restaurant with a friend from N.Y.U.
Until the middle of the twentieth century, in fact, almost every farmer was an erstwhile Burbank.
In his suit and tie and brown taqiyah, Blauvelt hardly seemed like an erstwhile jihadi.
For an erstwhile Sinclair hacker, the Raspberry Pi is déjà vu all over again.
She has not signed "Mary Holmes," but that of an erstwhile opera singer, Maria Nardi.
This case provided the opportunity for an erstwhile toothless regulator to bite back.
Similar(1)
Somehow, the tragicomedy of California politics has thrown up a suitably improbable deus ex machina an erstwhile cyborg with an Austrian accent.
Write better and faster with AI suggestions while staying true to your unique style.
Since I tried Ludwig back in 2017, I have been constantly using it in both editing and translation. Ever since, I suggest it to my translators at ProSciEditing.

Justyna Jupowicz-Kozak
CEO of Professional Science Editing for Scientists @ prosciediting.com