ex post
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of ex post
1635–45; < Latin: from (what lies) behind, according to (what lies) behind
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The issue is not just to admit, ex post facto, that we were wrong, but to think more deeply about why we were wrong.
From Salon • Dec. 20, 2025
“This is a violation of the ex post facto clause of the constitution,” said Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.
From Washington Times • Feb. 10, 2023
"A greater ex ante national ownership of the design of fiscal trajectories could be balanced by a stronger ex post enforcement at EU level," he said.
From Reuters • Oct. 10, 2022
Because genocide became an official crime only after the Nuremberg trials, Germany decided in 1949 that charging former Nazis with this crime would amount to ex post facto law.
From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2021
Because Wayna Qhapaq had not actually married Washkar’s mother—the union was properly incestuous but not properly legitimate—the new Inka demanded that his mother participate ex post facto in a wedding ceremony with his father’s mummy.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
