Definition of "afterlife" in Englisch

noun

1. A conscious existence after death; a supernatural life that follows one's natural life, in some worldviews.

   • Many religious people believe in an afterlife.
   • 1715, Alexander Pope, The Temple of Fame, London: Bernard Lintott, Note to p. 16, ver. 5, Those heroick Barbarians accounted it a Dishonour to die in their Beds, and rush’d on to certain Death in the Prospect of an After-Life […]
   • 1891, Ambrose Bierce, “A Watcher by the Dead” in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, San Francisco: E.L.G. Steele, p. 175, I, who have not a shade of superstition in my nature—I, who have no belief in immortality—I, who know […] that the after-life is the dream of a desire

2. The place believed to be inhabited by people who have died.

   • You'll reunite later, somewhere in the afterlife.

3. (countable, uncountable, now chiefly informal) The part of a person's life that follows a particular stage or event; later life.

   • They say that life begins at 40, but right now I'm more interested in the afterlife that begins at 65!

4. The effects of a person's actions, or their reputation, after death.

   • The philanthropic endowment that she bequeathed gave her an ongoing afterlife.
   • 1662, Margaret Cavendish, The Several Wits, Scene 34, in Playes, London: John Martyn et al., p. 111, […] poor poverty and birth, can be no hindrance to natural wit, for natural wit, in a poor Cottage, may spin an after-life, enter-weaving several colour’d fancies, and threeds of opinions, making fine and curious Tapestries to hang in the Chambers of fame,

5. The events or situations that result from a particular event; the later reception, consumption or reworking of something, especially a cultural production such as a film, book, etc.

   • The 1970s TV show M*A*S*H had a long afterlife in syndication.
   • 1969, Harry Zohn (translator), “The Task of the Translator” in Illuminations by Walter Benjamin, New York: Schocken Books, p. 71, The history of the great works of art tells us about their antecedents, their realization in the age of the artist, their potentially eternal afterlife in succeeding generations.