Then vs. Thereafter

(temporal location) At that time.

Example: ‘He was happy then.’;

(temporal location) Soon afterward.

Example: ‘He fixed it, then left.’; ‘Turn left, then right, then right again, then keep going until you reach the service station.’;

(sequence) Next in order; in addition.

Example: ‘There are three green ones, then a blue one.’;

(conjunctive) In that case.

Example: ‘If it’s locked, then we’ll need the key.’; ‘Is it 12 o'clock already? Then it's time for me to leave.’; ‘You don't like potatoes? What do you want me to cook, then?’;

(sequence) At the same time; on the other hand.

Example: ‘That’s a nice shirt, but then, so is the other one.’;

Used to contradict an assertion.

Being so at that time.

That time

Example: ‘It will be finished before then.’;

obsolete spelling of than

At that time (referring to a time specified, either past or future).

Example: ‘And the Canaanite was then in the land.’; ‘Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’;

Soon afterward, or immediately; next; afterward.

Example: ‘First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.’;

At another time; later; again.

Example: ‘One while the master is not aware of what is done, and then in other cases it may fall out to be own act.’; ‘But that opinion, I trust, by then this following argument hath been well read, will be left for one of the mysteries of an indulgent Antichrist.’;

Than.

In that case; in consequence; as a consequence; therefore; for this reason.

Example: ‘If all this be so, then man has a natural freedom.’; ‘Now, then, be all thy weighty cares away.’;

that time; that moment;

Example: ‘we will arrive before then’; ‘we were friends from then on’;

at a specific prior time;

Example: ‘the then president’;

subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors);

Example: ‘then he left’; ‘go left first, then right’; ‘first came lightning, then thunder’; ‘we watched the late movie and then went to bed’; ‘and so home and to bed’;

in that case or as a consequence;

Example: ‘if he didn't take it, then who did?’; ‘keep it then if you want to’; ‘the case, then, is closed’; ‘you've made up your mind then?’; ‘then you'll be rich’;

at that time;

Example: ‘I was young then’; ‘prices were lower back then’; ‘science as it was then taught’;

at that time; at the time in question

Example: ‘he accepted a peerage from the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath’; ‘Phoebe by then was exhausted’; ‘I was living in Cairo then’;

after that; next; afterwards

Example: ‘she won the first and then the second game’;

also; in addition

Example: ‘I'm paid a generous salary, and then there's the money I've made at the races’;

in that case; therefore

Example: ‘if you do what I tell you, then there's nothing to worry about’; ‘well, that's okay then’;

used at the end of a sentence to emphasize an inference being drawn

Example: ‘so you're still here then’;

used to finish off a conversation

Example: ‘see you in an hour then’;

After that, from then on.

Example: ‘He left; thereafter we never met again.’;

After that; afterward.

According to that; accordingly.

Example: ‘I deny not but that it is of greatest concernment in the church and commonwealth to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors.’;

Of that sort.

from that time on;

Example: ‘thereafter he never called again’;